Dan Vera
Dan Vera (?-present) is a Cuban American writer, editor, and watercolorist from Southern Texas currently residing in Washington, DC. He is the author of Speaking Wiri Wiri and The Space Between Our Danger and Delight. He co-founded VRZHU Press, is the publisher of Souvenir Spoon Press, and is the managing editor of White Crane. Source
Wiri Wiri
The language holds us together.
How you are bathed in it
till you tire and run
or are pushed away from the tongue
by parents who’d spare you the hurdles they jumped.
The language pulls us apart.
How we are bathed in it
made to never forget,
reprimanded for not speaking it
by parents would not be left behind.
¡En esta casa se habla Español!
¡No se habla el wiri wiri!
Demands for the sounds
From that singular place
with it’s undeniable song.
Published:
2009
Length:
Shorty
Literary Movements:
Contemporary
Anthology Years:
2020
Themes:
Intersectionality & Culture
Literary Devices:
Alliteration
the repetition of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words appearing in succession
Juxtaposition
the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect
Repetition
a recurrence of the same word or phrase two or more times