Karla Cordero: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tiburón

once, as a child, my parents & a credit card bought a pool table

& i found myself in the backyard with clumsy hands & growing breasts— 

 

i claimed corner pocket until i could master sinking an eight ball 

& by fifteen the neighborhood kids knew of the mexican girl 

 

named Tiburón— the shark who’d bite at the sound of a pool stick 

chalked into strategy in exchange for walmart gift cards.

 

& i recall a time when a boy who thought himself a man 

challenged me to a game of strip pool.

 

i thanked the sky for the cold desert night, for cloaking my body 

with layers. i emptied the table of its striped billiards &

 

the boy who thought himself a man stripped down to a full moon,

cupped his manhood & i walked away 

 

with his shit-talk in my pocket. years later, in college, my roommate

asked me to accompany her to the local pub.

 

the bar sticky in old beer & jukebox, we took our seat on broken stools, 

rickety when our legs crossed themselves for good balance.

 

the room full of tall men hovered over the pool table, their hands 

choking the necks of IPA’s. i stacked a tower of quarters on the table.

stared down a white man covered in mermaid tattoos 

trapped in the ocean of his arm.

i’ll play for 5 bucks & a few smokes. i break the table & his jaw 

snaps back at the reckless dance. four beers later i sweep 

a twenty dollar bill & american spirits. i walked into the alley, 

smoked my winnings & exchanged my dollar bills for a california burrito. 

 

my mouth smothered in salsa verde. i laughed, laughed at the history 

of men who dare doubt the feral animal that blazes in this blood.

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Karla Cordero is a Chicana poet, educator, and a 2021 California Arts Council Established Artist Fellow. Her poetry collection, How To Pull Apart The Earth, is a San Diego Book Award winner and finalist for the International Latino Book Awards. Karla’s work has appeared on NPR, Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, Split This Rock, The Oprah Magazine, PANK, The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4 LatiNext Anthology, among other publications. She is the Executive Director for the non-profit art organization Glassless Minds and Professor at MiraCosta College and San Diego City College. Follow her @karlaflaka13 on Instagram or visit her website.

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                                                                   Charles Edouard Boutibonne, Ladies Playing Billiards, 1869

 

Comments

[Denise Duhamel]

FANTASTIC POEM! Love the assertions here--and the sly narrative. Brava!

[Grace Cavalieri]

Yes.This is a full-length film with the poet as star of a powerful swag.

[Ann Bracken]

Fabulous, sassy, and spirited poem. Brava!

[Don Berger]

Greatness:

"i thanked the sky for the cold desert night, for cloaking my body/with layers. i emptied the table of its striped billiards &/

the boy who thought himself a man stripped down to a full moon,/cupped his manhood & i walked away

with his shit-talk in my pocket."

Not to mention: "...mermaid tattoos/trapped in the ocean of his arm."

An enviably strong vivid poem that holds the story line so well in a clear conversational way, and at the same time contains thrilling phrases we've never heard anyone say before. Karla, terrific! Thanks Terence!

[Bill Nevins]

Ah, this poem is dead brilliant! I hope this great poet will some day grace us with her presence here in Burque, NM! As Terence knows, my late son Liam was a fierce pool shark himself and I know he would laugh and delight in this poem! Slainte agus Venceremos!
"my mouth smothered in salsa verde. i laughed, laughed at the history/ of men who dare doubt the feral animal that blazes in this blood"--Poetry gets no better than those lines!

[Anne Harding Woodworth]

I love this poem! Reminds me of another such bar scene when my (new) husband put a stack of quarters down and held the table against challenger after challenger. I didn’t know he even knew how to play. Turns out his talent was a result of a roommate’s instruction and hours at daily pool in law school. Keep it up, Tiburon.

[Abbie Mulvihill]

We need more poems of kick-ass heroines like this! Fantastic story and poem!

[Beth Joselow]

Outstanding-- and the perfect painting to go with it.

[Eileen]

I love this poem and the picture it presents. It’s amazing and humorous at the same time!

[Thomas O'Grady]

“mermaid tattoos / trapped in the ocean of his arm”

Very rich!

[clarinda]

I love this poem with passion. I love its graceful in-your-face swagger. I love its triumph.
I have a beloved female friend who is a championship pool player in beery, sticky, jukebox Baltimore. Two clicks from now I'll send it to her!
Onward! Huzzah!

[Julien Strong]

WOW—what a poem. I can feel the heat and power radiating off every line. And yes, please, a movie version!

[David Lehman]

Here's to "the feral animal"!

[lally]

badaboom!

[Susan campbell]

Wonderful!

[Cindy Hochman]

A wonderfully rich, detailed, and vivid poem. And I think the couplets form is perfect for the content. Thank you for sharing this; I enjoyed reading it.

[Bob Holman]

Hats off to TW! His selections never fail to rock and to roll

[Bob Holman]

Hats off to TW! His selections never fail to rock and to roll

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Bob!  I'm honored you think so.

A new comment from “Bob Holman” was received on the post “Karla Cordero: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]” of the blog “The Best American Poetry”.

Comment:
Hats off to TW! His selections never fail to rock and to roll

Commenter name: Bob Holman
Commenter email: [email protected]
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