{"id":3067,"date":"2018-10-05T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridareview.cah.ucf.edu\/?post_type=article&p=3067"},"modified":"2018-10-05T12:00:32","modified_gmt":"2018-10-05T12:00:32","slug":"two-poems-from-open-pit","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/two-poems-from-open-pit\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Poems from “open pit”"},"content":{"rendered":"

These poems are from\u00a0Villar\u00e1n’s forthcoming collection\u00a0open pit<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

he likes to stare at walls <\/strong><\/h3>\n

you were born in davis<\/p>\n

in a small inflatable pool<\/p>\n

in april<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

during those first weeks, you would often wake up crying<\/p>\n

in the middle of the night. without really knowing how<\/p>\n

i would pick you up from the crib and hold you tight against<\/p>\n

my chest, until you calmed down, and fell asleep again<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

i liked staying like this for a while<\/p>\n

staring at the darkness<\/p>\n

that would become the wall<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the world is waiting in line \/\u00a0<\/strong>at target<\/strong><\/h3>\n

imagine us in the car a sunny day the windows down<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

driving to the beach 88.3 driving and all those cars next to us driving<\/p>\n

always in movement the highway is always full because the more<\/p>\n

lanes we build the more cars are attracted to the smell of concrete<\/p>\n

and white arrows painted over seemingly endless black surfaces:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the original infrastructure of future battlefields<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

imagine thousands of small highways running inside of you<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

all those cars driving somewhere taking something someone like us<\/p>\n

perhaps to the beach with your mother so we would have the cooler<\/p>\n

and the tent the umbrellas and the surfboards imagine all those cars<\/p>\n

going somewhere taking something driving someone imagine all that<\/p>\n

movement all that continuous movement the displacement dislocation<\/p>\n

bodies inside metal vehicles on black surfaces running<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

imagine thousands of small really really small<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

a huge conveyor belt a network of swollen arteries imagine an open pit<\/p>\n

an open wound the skin rupturing imagine your leg imagine your arm<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

imagine my leg imagine my arm<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

a big bag of tendons and ligaments necrotic tissue a bundle of nerve<\/p>\n

tissue imagine bags of plastic inside your stomach lining your<\/p>\n

intestines and climbing up your esophagus through the larynx<\/p>\n

the lack of oxygen<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

imagine these huge pond type structures with plastic geothermal<\/p>\n

liners stretching across the mountains dissecting the mountains<\/p>\n

becoming the new mountain the only landscape leaching ponds laid<\/p>\n

out in endless geometrical patterns<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

imagine every single muscle every fiber every synapse every neuron<\/p>\n

needed for you to type with your right index finger:<\/p>\n

n. n. n.
\nthe letter n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

imagine thousands of small highways pulsating inside of you<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

imagine it never stopping<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

thousands of small highways and the cars and the people and the things<\/p>\n

and the places they want to take those things to because that\u2019s what we<\/p>\n

do we go places with things and we use metal vehicles that travel on<\/p>\n

seemingly endless black surfaces just imagine all of this happening all<\/p>\n

the time all the time happening all the time always<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

this highway<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>there\u2019s no outside<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

this open pit<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

this wound this rupture this crevice inside body this highway all the time<\/p>\n

always<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

what i\u2019m trying to say miqel is:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

just imagine thousands of small highways always running inside of you<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

imagine everything that\u2019s needed for this to happen<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

all the time<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

always<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

now imagine an open pit a large open pit in the middle of a valley<\/p>\n

surrounded by fractured mountains<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

i think that\u2019s how it works<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

we have that pit<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

we keep running: faster faster faster<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

birds die and their stomachs are filled with plastic<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

whales die and their stomachs are filled with plastic<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the united states economy gets a billion-dollar daily shot in its arm<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

imagine your arm<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

i\u2019m thinking of mine<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

we have that pit<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and we fill it with these things<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

we keep running faster always faster<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

now imagine us at the beach, imagine it being sunny again but not<\/p>\n

too hot, imagine the sky punctuated by a few curious clouds, your<\/p>\n

mother would be smiling, she\u2019s beautiful when she smiles<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

it\u2019s still happening<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

i don\u2019t know what it is<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

i\u2019m not sure what to do about it either<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

but i know it\u2019s happening, all the time, always, relentless<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

we have that pit, it\u2019s open, really open<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and things are exploding and people are breaking and burning and dying<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and we\u2019re distracted<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

because we love the sand<\/p>\n

the salt in the water<\/p>\n

the cool air<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

you were born in davis \/ in a small inflatable pool . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3068,"template":"","categories":[9,49,119],"tags":[6,265,822,37,823,824,825],"class_list":["post-3067","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-literary-features","category-poetry","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-fatherhood","tag-he-likes-to-stare-at-walls","tag-hispanic-heritage-month","tag-jose-antonio-villeran","tag-open-pit","tag-the-world-is-waiting-in-line-at-target"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTwo Poems from "open pit" - The Florida Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/two-poems-from-open-pit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Two Poems from "open pit" - 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