They say La Llorona cries
for her children, who she
drowned to keep safe.
They say a mother would go to
great lengths to protect her
babies; they say mothers would sooner die
than let their children be harmed.
They say ¿Why she do it? They say
she was crazy – they say
she was brave. They say
this ain’t real. They say
they say they say – I say I saw
her. I say ICE Agents held her. I say
she screamed at them
to get away.”. We say,
offering maiz to our lloronas
who cry more each day
About the Writer: Carlos Campos Jr (they/them) is a Chicanx poet. They were born and live in Texas but their home is in Monterrey, and they are involved in organizing for a less terrible world. They are a founding member of the Houston DSA Arts Collective and are always happy to talk people’s ears off about the importance of Cultural Organizing. Interested in Latin America’s (and especially Chile’s) importance of poetry, they are dedicated in doing their part of building a mass appeal to poetry and the arts. Their work can now be found in the Houston Review of Books, where they debuted. One can find Carlos on Twitter as @CompaPoeta, and on Instagram as @UnoriginalSmack. They’re always open to messages, particularly for conversations on poetry and the radical power it has, but they’re not opposed to discussing anything else. Carlos is very interested in collaboration work, ranging from poets to artists to musicians and so on, particularly to break unnecessary divides which contemporary institutional art education brought.
Houston Review Of Books 