Poetry published in The Mackinaw

A journal of prose poetry - July issue

Dear Readers:

I’m pleased to share that six of my poems were published in the July issue of The Mackinaw, a literary journal. All of these are prose poems, which the Poetry Foundation describes as “prose composition that, while not broken into verse lines, demonstrates other traits such as symbols, metaphors, and other figures of speech common to poetry.”

Prose poems are more like reading an essay or stream of consciousness without regular punctuation or spacing (which might give a copy editor a heart attack).

You can read the poems here or by clicking on the image above. I’m also pasting one of my favorites below, which I wrote about my great-aunt Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert.

La Sociedad Folklorica

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Long after you died / I stumbled upon your cookbook / at White Sands National Park / There it was sitting in a display  / I was shocked to see my own name on the cover.
 
 I opened up the slim / beige volume / a rough paper surface / with a red ristra design / on the front / and there on the pages / were the dishes that I held in the deepest recesses of my memory. 
 
The smells overwhelmed me / and I got dizzy / standing there in the visitors center / surrounded by tourist books and maps and trinkets / wondering what you were really like / what had unfolded when you made each of these dishes / what happened when you married a man your parents disapproved of / I nearly fainted reading the ingredients for pozole / and chile sauce / and lines that said “First, slaughter a goat.”  
 
When I left the store / with a paper bag full of your books / I looked up at the white dunes stretching out beyond the horizon / and wished I could ask you all these questions / and sit with you in your kitchen.

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About my Aunt Fabby:

Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert (May 16, 1894 – October 14, 1991) was an American educator, nutritionist, activist and writer. Cabeza de Baca is also known as the inventor of the U-shaped fried taco shell. She was also the first known published author of a cookbook describing New Mexico cuisine. Cabeza de Baca was fluent in Spanish, English, Tewa and Tiwa.

https://www.nmhistoricwomen.org/new-mexico-historic-women/fabiola-cabeza-de-baca-gilbert/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabiola_Cabeza_de_Baca_Gilbert

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