Issue Five Contents

4 poems
by Domingo Alfonso 2 poems
by Rito Ramón Aroche 3 poems
by Caridad Atencio Flower Power
by Miguel Barnet 2 poems
by Pierre Bernet 2 poems
by Yanelys Encinosa Cabrera 4 poems
by Alberto Peraza Ceballos 3 poems
by Maria Liliana Celorrio 4 poems
by Felix Contreras art
by Wally Gilbert 3 poems
by Georgina Herrera 3 poems
by Karel Leyva 3 poems
by Robert Manzano 2 poems
by Roberto Méndez Martínez Grand Prismatic Spring
by Jamila Medina 2 poems
by Edel Morales 3 poems
by Alex Pausides How Lucky They Are, The Normal Ones
by Roberto Fernandez Retamar A Gust Disperses the Limits of Home
by Soleida Ríos 3 poems
by Mirta Yáñez Frogpondia
A Gust Disperses the Limits of Home
by Soleida Ríos
translated by translated by Aviva Cristy
Soleida Ríos was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1950. She has devoted more than thirty years to nourishing a robust Archivo de Sueños (Archive of Dreams). Ríos published El libro de los sueños (1999) and Antes del mediodía: Memoria del sueño (2011). She has written several acclaimed experimental works that transcend genre, including El libro roto (1995 and 2002); El texto sucio (1999); Libro cero (1998); Fuga, una antología personal (2004); Secadero (2009); Escritos al revés (2009 and 2011). Ríos won the Literary Critic’s Award for her Aquí pongamos un silencio (2010). She also won the Nicolás Guillén National Poetry Award and the Literary Critic’s Award for Estrías (2013 and 2015). Ríos writes that she wants "to plant a forest of Cuban poetry, a real forest (one tree for every poet, living or dead) that can give us refuge, another way of breathing."

Aviva Englander Cristy lives in Milwaukee, WI where she teaches creative writing and composition. Her chapbook, The Interior Structure, was published by Dancing Girl Press in 2013. Cristy received her M.F.A. in poetry from George Mason University. Her poems have appeared in Best New Poets 2012; The Spoon River Poetry Review; So To Speak; Prick of the Spindle; The Hollins Critic; BlazeVox; The Conversation Papers; Prime Number; decomP; and other journals. 
  to support the deceived child?
  to remove the husk of emptiness
  disintegrating from more than twenty years
  in its astonishing gulping?
  raise up the shoelaces?      show
  look this is the tip of your toe
  is there a certainty in the tip of your toe?

  everything was an illusion    the trees did not escape
  it was a lie the speed
  no one flees at two hundred kilometers per hour
  inside of your ear

  look how the people crowd together in the corners of the parks
  listening to the roar like a blessing of the bull who is castrated
  look how they go in the distance
  the masks
  lined up
  slowly
  smiling
  once again to wait
  the batteries of the next spectacle

  you pinned your heart for the rain        it was a lie
  the rain was behind the curtains
  understand        the world is full of curtains
  the house pretends to be the house and the rain pretends
  and that which wets the false roof is not more than mud diluted
  but the body as well --in its two waters-- pretends to be
  the body    it was a lie
  there was no father nor mother but instead a sky on loan
  where you went to hang some words     assistance
  the swing swings    the planet rotates in reverse

  understand
  the light inverts itself        pretends to be the light
  it is not the time that which dictates the corrosion of the words
  there in the time of the assassins
  the child terribly deceived glorified his age
  it was a lie

  right now present past and future
  they come together in the opening of the door
  show them the tip of your toe
  they are only vespers        understand
  swallow the venom to the bottom
  the bad pretends
  the good pretends to be the good
Soleida Ríos was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1950. She has devoted more than thirty years to nourishing a robust Archivo de Sueños (Archive of Dreams). Ríos published El libro de los sueños (1999) and Antes del mediodía: Memoria del sueño (2011). She has written several acclaimed experimental works that transcend genre, including El libro roto (1995 and 2002); El texto sucio (1999); Libro cero (1998); Fuga, una antología personal (2004); Secadero (2009); Escritos al revés (2009 and 2011). Ríos won the Literary Critic’s Award for her Aquí pongamos un silencio (2010). She also won the Nicolás Guillén National Poetry Award and the Literary Critic’s Award for Estrías (2013 and 2015). Ríos writes that she wants "to plant a forest of Cuban poetry, a real forest (one tree for every poet, living or dead) that can give us refuge, another way of breathing."

Aviva Englander Cristy lives in Milwaukee, WI where she teaches creative writing and composition. Her chapbook, The Interior Structure, was published by Dancing Girl Press in 2013. Cristy received her M.F.A. in poetry from George Mason University. Her poems have appeared in Best New Poets 2012; The Spoon River Poetry Review; So To Speak; Prick of the Spindle; The Hollins Critic; BlazeVox; The Conversation Papers; Prime Number; decomP; and other journals.