poetry – Dorian Merina

For My Cousins Who Will Choose Who They Are

FOR MY COUSINS WHO WILL CHOOSE WHO THEY ARE running home this evening I look for the san gabriels to find only a faint line above the haze a razor-black definition of home running and, before I can help it, my mind rushes in fills the rest with detail and reference so that I seeContinue reading “For My Cousins Who Will Choose Who They Are”

The Change Giver

THE CHANGE GIVER The Change-giver drops four pisos into my hand swivels hips sideways calls out the next stop Ortigaaaaaaaaaaaaaas one hand worrying the frayed edge of a trouser pocket switching back and forth coin against the railing one click means stop two clicks go sige dire-diretso hangang sa dulo The Change-giver paces the smallContinue reading “The Change Giver”

Migrations

Collaboration with visual artist Alyssa Sherwood, commissioned by the City of Pasadena. Read the entire poem here at the Poetry Foundation.

Exile

EXILE They were exiled for half a century from the island the ocean became a deep and treacherous border cut into the land. The punishment imposed by Spanish officials a consequence for insurrection certain as the fine embroidery on the priest’s frock ironed hot and flat for mass. Even so some were driven back byContinue reading “Exile”