small gods

Abstract

small gods is a poetry and creative nonfiction collection that focuses on the life of a first-generation Mexican American speaker attempting to wade through people's perceptions, ideals, and opinions while navigating grief and uncertainty. Each identity-focused poem, such as "Biracial Nomenclature [1]," "ABE, SNAP, and the Biracial Girl," and "Biracial Girl Befriends Eve," hinge on the pivotal moment of discovering the term "biracial." The inclusion of that new identity marker pushes and complicates both the speaker's interior relationship with themselves and their relationship with the outside world. Lyrically driven, each piece weaves together isolation and community to bridge two worlds. With family members spanning across two countries, the United States and Mexico, the speaker traverses and deconstructs borders, questioning the violent separation of homelands in poems such as "AMERICA AT 3AM" and "How much more American blood must we shed?" Railing against the constraining pressure to choose one side, the speaker finds comfort and support in Spanglish and aims to empower the interweaving of selves to give life to the merging of tongues. Simultaneously, the speaker attempts to understand the almost-deaths of family members and friends by reframing events into different imagined sequences. Feeling alone, the speaker questions Catholicism and God's role in the destruction of lives. Utilizing their imagination, the speaker transforms people into animals, such as fish and ants in the poem "From the Mouths of Fish," to digest the violence and harm witnessed.