Brother, I'd Like to Dream of it More Often by Leslie Sainz

Our dwindling pink,

something like sovereignty,

our pillows stuffed

with fables.

 

We were acrobats

too young to fathom the constraints

of the body—your bad knees,

my selfish need to rise.

 

Outside, the crabgrass spreading

like scripture. Our father will abandon

this land too, will call it unsaveable.

 

Still, I stretch

my arms as if receiving.

You nest in hush,

and lift.

---

Leslie Sainz is a first-generation Cuban-American, born and raised in Miami, Florida. A CantoMundo Fellow, she received her MFA in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was the Editor-in-Chief of Devil’s Lake. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Black Warrior Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Journal, Southern Humanities Review, and others. She was the Fall 2017 Writer-in-Residence at the Hub City Writers Project, and will serve as a 2018-2019 Stadler Fellow.