New Poems

Quick Check In and some new work

Hello Substack,

I’m writing a quick note to share a few announcements and new poems!

First, Chicago Magazine commissioned a poem from me. Here is the poem from me:

when we win

the masked agents raid our neighborhoods.

what do they cover up? (yesterday) is their promise

& their charge. on 75th and South Shore they ram down

our doors using (yesterday). they toss canisters

of (yesterday) into our children’s lullabies. why?

my people,

we carry (today) & (tomorrow) in twin holsters. we

plant (today) & (tomorrow) in our gardens. every day

there are more sprouts. let it be known: Chicago

will never cower. (yesterday) already died. (yesterday)

is dying. (yesterday) will die again. there is no future

in (yesterday). the agents in our neighborhoods hide

their faces because they are losing. because they lost.

when we win, 

there will be whistles from the gulls 

circling Lake Michigan. let them sing it:

Chicago is a city of (today) & (tomorrow). 

Chicago is the future.

I’m not gonna lie. I think I snapped with this poem. I was moved to write this poem by the ways Chicagoans and organizations like Organized Communities Against Deportation have been working to keep Chicagoans safe. I turned to the poems “Love” by Assata Shakur and the poem “A Litany for Survival” by Audre Lorde to figure out how to tap into a collective voice.

And then, I had the honor of publishing 3 poems with Sixty Inches From Center. Two of the poems are from my “against citizenship” series of poems. The third poem is called “promo: hater’s anthem.” I’ll share it below.

promo: hater’s anthem

enough of love. the hippies had it wrong—
they stuck daisies into rifles
& the rifles ate the daisies
& grew into tanks. all that
turn the other cheek business
just got more of our cheeks slapped.
love your enemy sounds like advice
your enemy would give you.
you—

i’m talking to you now—
me & you don’t need to like each other
we definitely don’t need to love each other—
i’m saying you & i have a common enemy.
his statue is up in every town square.
his face stamped on our money.
his voice echoing from every television.
the enemy of my enemy
doesn’t have to be my friend.
we don’t need to join out of love—
love is just a slogan used
to sell chocolates & roses.
let the history books call us haters—
let the record show not everyone applauded
during the king’s coronation.
let everyone know when the king bowed for the crown,
some of us dared to dream of guillotines.

I wrote this after watching hella wrestling and thinking about what a promo might look like as a poem. I wrote this promo on the day of the 2025 presidential inauguration. shout out to all my fellow haters.

Lastly, I am teaching a course for Poets & Writers called Yo Hablo No Sabo: Multilingual Poetics. If you are interested in playing with language and embracing idioms, vernaculars, and all of our collected language to write poems that explore the heart with rhythm and tenderness, consider joining up.

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That’s all my good news. It’s been a season of rejection for me. Which is cool. Which stinks. But it is what it is. It’s part of the process, and I’m already making plans for 2026. (I read this book called A MARRIAGE AT SEA by Sophie Elmhurst about a married couple that got stranded for 118 days in the Pacific Ocean on a life raft, and the couple talks a lot about how they were able to endure by continuing to make plans for their future after they got rescued. The book is excellent. I highly recommend it and also recommend this: if you too are in a season of rejection, keep making plans. Keep your spirit strong.

talk to you soon,

josé aka papi churro aka kola champagne papi aki papi two times two times