Raquel Salas Rivera is a Puerto Rican poet, translator, and editor. His honors include being named the 2018–19 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia and receiving the New Voices Award from Puerto Rico’s Festival de la Palabra. He is the author of five previous full-length poetry books. His third book, lo terciario / the tertiary, won the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry and was longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award. Two poems appeared in the San Juan city issue of WLT (Autumn 2020). He currently writes and teaches in Puerto Rico.
Benjamin Murphy, 100 Years of Progress (2021), oil on canvas, 72 x 48 in. / By permission of the artist
but the day arrived
when exhaustion broke my face
and i was more than bad,
i...
Damaris Cruz, Fuego Camina Conmigo, @damalola / Courtesy of the artist
(note for a friend who wants to commit suicide after the hurricane)
no one teaches us to accept death because de...