"now i’m bologna" by José Olivarez

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend September 28, 2018   now i'm bologna   José Olivarez

my parents were born from a car. they climbed out & kissed the car on its cheek. my grandmother. to be a first generation person. 23 and Me reports i am descendant of pistons & drive trains. 33% irrigation tools. you are what you do. my first job was in a lunch meat factory. now i'm bologna. it's not so bad being a person. the front seat of a car is more comfortable than the trunk. when they were babies my parents dreamt of being Lamborghinis. not people. you are what your children grow up to do. if i put my parents' names on papers, what happens? the answer is no comment. the answer is quién sabe. the answer is yo no sé, pero no es abogado. people are overrated. give me avocados.                Copyright © 2018 José Olivarez. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "I wrote this poem as part of a collaborative series with the visual artist Victoria Martinez. Victoria's Celestial House series plays with visual elements of nostalgia. She takes pieces of old dresses she loves and gives them a new life via collage. I tried to write a poem that worked like a collage does. I wanted to make nostalgia nauseating." —José Olivarez   José Olivarez is the author of Citizen Illegal (Haymarket Books, 2018). He works at Young Chicago Authors and lives in Chicago, Illinois. Photo credit RJ Eldridge Poetry by Olivarez   Citizen Illegal (Haymarket Books, 2018) "Poem in Which I Only Use Vowels" by Paola Capó-García "Poem Full of Worry Ending with My Birth" by Tarfia Faizullah "Ceremony for Remembering the Doorless World" by Aracelis Girmay September Guest Editor: Rigoberto González   Thanks to Rigoberto González, author of Unpeopled Eden (Four Way Books, 2013), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about González and our guest editors for the year. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038

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