Dan Vera

cantfindit

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