Carlos Andrés Gómez is a Columbian-American poet, author, actor, and speaker. He is the recipient the 2018 Broken River Prize, selected by Eduardo C. Corral, for his new collection of poems, Hijito (Platypus Press 2019).
In the basement of the crack house I used to visit / as an outreach worker on 121st street in Harlem, / I was convinced He refused / to travel north of 96th.
Conquest followed by red / and black and pale—beasts / of conflict, judgement, and death. / But what of this equine quartet—
my ocean like a god never recedes / / but sometimes it withdraws / for a brief breath-holding / leaving the lagoon alack / / the fish gut-sputtering
Mother, I wrote a poem in which I forgave / your sin of omission, your fear of the truth.
Because takeoff so quickly morphed / / into landing, because the sky so quickly became a bridge and then a body / of water
