[Speaking in Non-English]
After Urayoán Noel and Bad Bunnysurvival will come from the cracks / in the syntax // fissures forming from the record scratch spanglish // like they don’t like our asses anyways / like watch em caption that shit [SPEAKING IN NON-ENGLISH] / todos quieren ser caribeños // damn fr // latino ni latino / todos / todos / todos / todos / todos quieren ser caribeños / so when we drop that d from the past participle / cuidao // because i like my spanish with a stutter in it / off kilter like a salsa cow bell / hell // la lengua ha sido robao // y lo ilegible is a cover / because i can’t suffer through transcription / man, listen / sometimes its hard to feel like appreciation ain’t a fiction / it’s an affliction devouring up our island / i want you / gringo / to walk a mile and / see how it feels on our shores / en la finca / not no five star resort / come experience what we experience / know what we know / fuck the tax breaks / see how far a dollar goes
Isabel Cruz is a Boricua poet and Emeritus Youth Poetry Ambassador for the Paterson Poetry Festival. She has won awards including the 2024 Five College Prose and Poetry Prize and the 2024 Elizabeth Babcock Prize for Best Poem, and she was a featured poet at the 2024 Dodge Poetry Festival. Her work is published or forthcoming in I Feel Nothing Like Good, Ghost City Review and By the WAYE, among others. Last year, Cruz was awarded a full scholarship from the Poetry Project for their late summer learning session and named a Brooklyn Poets Fellow.