<div class="line">Neither do I, but yesterday, in the hospital,</div>
<div class="line">for two hours, I held the hand of a dying woman—</div>
<div class="line">my friend’s grandmother, 94, barely intelligible,</div>
<div class="line">and in unrelenting pain. Every few seconds,</div>
<div class="line">she slurred what could only be, <span style="font-style: italic;">Help me</span>.</div>
<div class="line"><span style="font-style: italic;">Help me. Help me.</span> Over and over. Nothing</div>
<div class="line">we did worked: not water, not raising or lowering</div>
<div class="line">the bed, not massage, nothing but canned pineapple,</div>
<div class="line">the little piece we would place in her mouth,</div>
<div class="line">the chewing, something she could do; the juice,</div>
<div class="line">a blessing on her dry tongue. But all too soon</div>
<div class="line">the pain bit back down—the moaning, the grimace,</div>
<div class="line">the <span style="font-style: italic;">Help me</span>. The human remembering the animal.</div>
<div class="line">Suffering and more suffering. Until my friend</div>
<div class="line">placed her phone next to her grandmother’s ear</div>
<div class="line">and played Alan Jackson singing “What a Friend</div>
<div class="line">We Have in Jesus,” when, from the first chord</div>
<div class="line">on the guitar, her body stilled, her face went slack.</div>
<div class="line">For two minutes, she went somewhere else,</div>
<div class="line">somewhere quiet, beautiful, free of pain.</div>
<div class="line">We played it again. And again. And when</div>
<div class="line">she fell asleep, when her breathing deepened,</div>
<div class="line">her mouth and eyes still open; when the Furies</div>
<div class="line">stopped their gorging, we were so grateful,</div>
<div class="line">not to God, but to her faith, to her belief in something</div>
<div class="line">better, something kinder, and with fewer teeth.</div><figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://admin.rattle.com/audio/AlcantaraGod.mp3"></audio></figure>

Summer Afternoon

Exile is No Country

To a Friend Who Does Not Believe in God

<div class="line">He has flown headfirst against the glass</div>
<div class="line">and now lies stunned on the stone patio,</div>
<div class="line">nothing moving but his quick beating heart.</div>
<div class="line">So you go to him, pick up his delicate</div>
<div class="line">body and hold him in the cupped palms</div>
<div class="line">of your hands. You have always known</div>
<div class="line">he was beautiful, but it’s only now, in his stillness,</div>
<div class="line">in his vulnerability, that you see the miracle</div>
<div class="line">of his being, how so much life fits in so small</div>
<div class="line">a space. And so you wait, keeping him warm</div>
<div class="line">against the unseasonable cold, trusting that</div>
<div class="line">when the time is right, when he has recovered</div>
<div class="line">both his strength and his sense of up and down,</div>
<div class="line">he will gather himself, flutter once or twice,</div>
<div class="line">and then rise, a streak of dazzling</div>
<div class="line">color against a slowly lifting sky.</div><figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://admin.rattle.com/audio/AlcantaraDivorce.mp3"></audio></figure>

Wilhelmina

Instructions for the Day After

Divorce

<p>[audioplayer file=&#8221;https://admin.rattle.com/audio/AlcantaraAcing.mp3&#8243;]</p>
<div class="line">No one has ever done it before, no man</div>
<div class="line">has ever got all the questions right; no woman</div>
<div class="line">either. It’s hard to believe, but I saw it on TV.</div>
<div class="line">Amazing! That’s what the doctors say. A genius!</div>
<div class="line">I’m not making this up. They caught it on camera.</div>
<div class="line">In all of recorded history, he’s the first person</div>
<div class="line">to correctly identify an elephant. The first person!</div>
<div class="line">Goddamn! He’s smarter than that guy who led the Man</div>
<div class="line">hattan Project. And how good he looks on camera!</div>
<div class="line">Has there ever been a sexier man? If I was a woman,</div>
<div class="line">he could grab my genitals. Oh, to be groped by a genius.</div>
<div class="line">And to think, he spent so many years on TV</div>
<div class="line">being laughed at, made fun of. Did you know that TV</div>
<div class="line">is an acronym for “Terribly Virile”? Person</div>
<div class="line">ally, I can’t imagine a more stable genius.</div>
<div class="line">And I can’t understand why the fake news man</div>
<div class="line">gles everything he says. So what if he a paid a woman</div>
<div class="line">hush money? So what if the Russians hid a camera</div>
<div class="line">in his hotel room? When you gotta go, you gotta go, camera</div>
<div class="line">be damned. And don’t believe everything you see on TV.</div>
<div class="line">Except those test results. Thirty-five right! WOMAN.</div>
<div class="line">MAN.       CAMERA.       TV.       PERSON.</div>
<div class="line">Wow! I probably have the wrong order, but, man,</div>
<div class="line">that guy is fucking brilliant. I mean, I’m no genius</div>
<div class="line">but that doesn&#8217;t mean I don’t know a genius</div>
<div class="line">when I see one. I wish they had the part on camera</div>
<div class="line">where he counted backward by sevens. Man,</div>
<div class="line">that must be incredible. And in HD TV!</div>
<div class="line">100 &#8211; 93 &#8211; 86 &#8211; 79 What kind of person</div>
<div class="line">can even do that?! I once heard of a woman</div>
<div class="line">who could count backward by threes, but that woman</div>
<div class="line">ain’t nothing compared to this guy. He’s a genius’s genius.</div>
<div class="line">I’m so glad we have the greatest, smartest, best-ever person</div>
<div class="line">leading our country. It’s a damned lucky camera</div>
<div class="line">that gets to record such powerful and intelligent TV</div>
<div class="line">footage of this once-in-a-millenium Superman.</div>
<div class="line">He must be the first genius ever caught on camera</div>
<div class="line">showing a simple person like me, with only a TV,</div>
<div class="line">how to dazzle a woman, how to be a real man.</div>
<p><figure id="attachment_32318" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32318" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://youtu.be/Y5yoXdjDey4"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-32318" src="https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/OpenMicforFBtopS.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="675" srcset="https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/OpenMicforFBtopS.jpg 1200w, https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/OpenMicforFBtopS-600x338.jpg 600w, https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/OpenMicforFBtopS-300x169.jpg 300w, https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/OpenMicforFBtopS-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://admin.rattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/OpenMicforFBtopS-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-32318" class="wp-caption-text">Join us this morning for Poets Respond Live! <a href="https://youtu.be/Y5yoXdjDey4">Click here</a> to watch …</figcaption></figure></p>


Postcard from Paris

Poets Respond

Woman to Girl

Acing the Test: A Sestina

<div class="line">When I take my morning walk now,</div>
<div class="line">I am Pancho Villa. I am Che Guevara.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">I am an outlaw in a mask and dark glasses.</div>
<div class="line">I am starting a revolution.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">Power to the peonies!</div>
<div class="line">¡Vivas to the violets!</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">We would rather die on our knees,</div>
<div class="line">sniffing at a flower,</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">than live, standing in line,</div>
<div class="line">waiting for toilet paper to arrive.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">Quivering, I throw my heart out,</div>
<div class="line">six feet in every direction.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">All that creeps, crawls, slithers,</div>
<div class="line">or flies, I love.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">I lower my mask.</div>
<div class="line">I fling wide my arms.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">I kiss death full on the mouth.</div><figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://admin.rattle.com/audio/AlcantaraPuede.mp3"></audio></figure>

Kneading Bread While Dying

Today’s Sermon

Si Se Puede

<div class="line">We put him outside;</div>
<div class="line">he claws the paint off the door.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">We put him in the crate;</div>
<div class="line">he howls.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">We close the sliding partition;</div>
<div class="line">he busts through.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">We take no evasive action;</div>
<div class="line">he’s on the bed, wagging his tail,</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">shoving his nose</div>
<div class="line">in the most noseworthy places.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">We’ve tried the hedgehog, the squeaky lobster,</div>
<div class="line">the double knotted rope.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">And though these may sound like sex toys</div>
<div class="line">they most definitely are not.</div><figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://admin.rattle.com/audio/AlcantaraCanis.mp3"></audio></figure>

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May 2, 2020Si Se PuedeJose A. Alcantara

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May 2, 2020Si Se PuedeJose A. Alcantara

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