Thanks to the poet and teacher TC Tolbert, my poem “Only We Make Beautiful Things Just to Destroy Them” is up at the Academy of American Poets! Click here to listen, read, and share.
It’s important for us to remember what we’ve survived, like the Bracero Program and past anti-immigrant violence, so that even in the midst of more trauma from racism, sexism, and rising fascism, we can persist and resist.
To bring me to your campus in person, or virtually, visit this page to learn more.
An excerpt:
“What’s a layer of confetti and candy compared to DDT The kind you sprayed over all our naked bodies/ We’re diamonds: hard, shiny, and we/ Get processed to go through We don’t infest, pendejo. We invest/ There goes your friend again, diving toward/ The paleta, which has to be pineapple flavor”
Vickie Vértiz 