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
3 poems
by Mirta Yáñez
Mirta Yáñez is a Cuban philologist, educator and writer. In 1992, she earned her doctorate in philology from the University of Havana. Yáñez’s area of specialization is Latin American and Cuban literature with a secondary focus on Cuban women's literary discourse. She was a professor of Latin American literature for many years, teaching and conducting research at the University of Havana. Her fiction works include Sangra por la herida (2010); El búfalo ciego y otros cuentos (2008); Serafín y las aventuras en el Reino de los Comejenes (2007); Falsos documentos - Cuentos (2005); Narraciones desordenadas e incompletas (1997); El diablo son las cosas - Cuentos (1988); La hora de los mameyes (1983); Yo soy Jack Johnson (1982); La Habana es una ciudad bien grande (1980); Serafín y sus aventuras con los caballitos (1979); and Todos los negros tomamos café (1976). Yáñez’s poetry collections include Un solo bosque negro, (2003); Algún lugar en ruinas (1997); Poesía casi completa de Jiribilla el conejo (1994); Poemas (1987); Las visitas y otros poemas (1986); and Las visitas (1971). She has received numerous awards, including Poetry PrConcurso 13 de Marzo Las visitas (1970); Narrative Prize in Edad de Oro Competitiontion (1977); Critics’ Choice El diablo son las cosas (1988); Critics’ Choice La narrativa romantica en Latinoamérica (1990); Memoire Prize given by the Centro Cultural Pablo de la Torriente Brau (1999); Forderpreis der Iniciative LiBeraturpreis (2001); and Critics’ Choice for Falsos Documentos (2005). Yáñez has also written for film and television and been published extensively as a journalist and literary critic.

One a.m. hard bolero

Seven diurnals

A twelve meridian happening 

One a.m. hard bolero

Who hasn’t said it
Using simple words,
Definitely curdled in the heart,
With a gramophone voice,
Of quartered tango in its pure truth.
Who can exclusively own
Those wrong sentences for common use,
As a puff they grow,
They expand,
And tear off the first dream of the dawn,
One a.m. hard bolero,
They crash into live blood
The one thousand and one possible getaways to not suffering.
Prayers which have been repeated since the world’s called world,
Only they beat us there,
At your balcony,
At my hideaway,
Hyperbolic, par excellence,
Those half-sharp stabbing sentences;
but how otherwise to say
that I should rip out
from my chest this desperate love.

Seven diurnals


Each morning I get older
Against all proof.
I feel obligated to report
A rebellious part inside my core:
Ringing, tinkling,
Laborious  rattle of seven diurnals,
A pack from the sleeping person stays
Stubbornly
In childhood.

A twelve meridian happening


It happened the way I tell it.
I was thinking
The everyday usual
—I swear that it was the old same—
I was scared
That never happened anything extraordinary.
And then the witch
Crossed flying hopped on her broom,
She shouted at me Mirta
And I went pale.
Mirta Yáñez is a Cuban philologist, educator and writer. In 1992, she earned her doctorate in philology from the University of Havana. Yáñez’s area of specialization is Latin American and Cuban literature with a secondary focus on Cuban women's literary discourse. She was a professor of Latin American literature for many years, teaching and conducting research at the University of Havana. Her fiction works include Sangra por la herida (2010); El búfalo ciego y otros cuentos (2008); Serafín y las aventuras en el Reino de los Comejenes (2007); Falsos documentos - Cuentos (2005); Narraciones desordenadas e incompletas (1997); El diablo son las cosas - Cuentos (1988); La hora de los mameyes (1983); Yo soy Jack Johnson (1982); La Habana es una ciudad bien grande (1980); Serafín y sus aventuras con los caballitos (1979); and Todos los negros tomamos café (1976). Yáñez’s poetry collections include Un solo bosque negro, (2003); Algún lugar en ruinas (1997); Poesía casi completa de Jiribilla el conejo (1994); Poemas (1987); Las visitas y otros poemas (1986); and Las visitas (1971). She has received numerous awards, including Poetry PrConcurso 13 de Marzo Las visitas (1970); Narrative Prize in Edad de Oro Competitiontion (1977); Critics’ Choice El diablo son las cosas (1988); Critics’ Choice La narrativa romantica en Latinoamérica (1990); Memoire Prize given by the Centro Cultural Pablo de la Torriente Brau (1999); Forderpreis der Iniciative LiBeraturpreis (2001); and Critics’ Choice for Falsos Documentos (2005). Yáñez has also written for film and television and been published extensively as a journalist and literary critic.