Paul Hlava Ceballos
Paul Hlava Ceballos is the author of banana [ ], winner of the AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry, the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has fellowships from CantoMundo, Artist Trust, and the Poets House. He has been featured on the Poetry Magazine Podcast, Seattle’s the Stranger, and his work has been translated to Ukrainian. He currently lives in Seattle, where he practices echocardiography. Source
Split
At birth my parents pulled my legs
and split me lengthwise like a wish.
Rumiñahui saved his city
from Spaniards by striking two stones,
holy temples made pure as ash.
When a concerned citizen pinned
me to airport wall to check my
origin, I whispered, thank you.
My dad says, Good, we’re safer now.
My uncle: then leave the country.
Christmases, I stay home in bed.
Only the chaste were burned alive.
One mind replies, I want to live.
The other: I want to live well.
Published:
2022
Length:
Shorty
Literary Movements:
Contemporary
Anthology Years:
2024
Themes:
Family
Identity
Literary Devices:
Alliteration
the repetition of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words appearing in succession
Couplets
two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit
Juxtaposition
the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect
Simile
a comparison between two unlike things using the words “like” or “as”