like a red and empty shirt
pinned wet to a clothesline
my mother
only seventeen
trembles
as she hands her father her belt
knowing its buckle will bite
the brown and black
off her back and leave broken
skin and bruises
the color and size
of jocotes
en miel her knees sink
as they had done a week prior
before her maker
again
into a suelo more like cielo
as she explains her conversion
to another gospel and commandment
hugging her libro de mormon
unable to read or know
anything other than the truth
it burned through her belly
she trembles before the sun battered
arms of her catholic father
her chest beating with something
i cannot call fear
know this
is how i love
if i ever kneel
down before you
as if in prayer
Willy Palomo learned poetry from the worlds of hip-hop and slam poetry. In 2015, he received his BA in English and Creative Writing and an Honors degree from Westminster College in Salt Lake City, where he founded the college’s first poetry slam team and served as Editor-in-Chief to ellipsis. He has competed in poetry slam nationally as a member of Salt City Slam and Westminster Slam. His work is published or forthcoming in Vinyl, Muzzle, Button Poetry, and elsewhere. He is also pursuing an MA in Latin American and Caribbean studies.
