MADE IN AMERICA / Joel Nunn-Sparks / @joelthecreative
In addition to the art and poetry included in this post, the February issue of Tumbleweird also included these works featured in separate posts on our website:
Angelique Spence
Tumbleweird
Tumbleweird
Ms. JuruDaWise
Exam
My mother’s lessons are too late.
After all we’ve lived through — the years she counts
in precise concurrence with the Nakba
and the ones I count while I bite my tongue —
she insists on lecturing me, word by word, all at once.
She shows no consideration for my chronic distraction
nor for the chasm of years between us,
the urbanity that tamed the nomad in me
and glossed the margins of my language.
She repeats lessons with the cruelty
of a teacher whose retirement has been delayed.
She searches for her stick under her arms,
cannot find it,
so she pounds on the wooden desk
To hell with any man who makes you cry, you understand?
and there’s no bell to rescue me
before the exam.
— Sheikha Hlewa, Haifa
Poems from Palestine
Translated by Lena Tuffaha
Read more at:
thebaffler.com/logical-revolts/poems-from-palestine
Unpaid Bill
Confederate flags comin’ down, statues too.
Four hundred years oppressed; and not through!
Death by Police man, Justified!!!
MURDER, MURDER, MURDER cried.
Hundreds of years killing US at will;
just know there is a bill.
All the talk but I know true.
Now and Right Now the bill is past DUE.
— Joel Eldridge Nunn, Sr. (2022)
Poemas del libro: Aquí no pasa nada
Poems from the book: Aqui no pasa nada (Nothing happens here)
EL ITACATE.
El hambre se levanta temprano y ya espera a la mesa.
Prepara su itacate con ilusiones frescas; estómagos vacíos apresuran la marcha.
La hambruna no comprende de leyes, escucha los consejos de la necesidad, mordisquea los talones de los desposeídos.
Apresurando el paso reclama su futuro y arriesgando la vida se juegan su destino.
Itacate proviene del vocablo náhuatl “Itacatl” y hace referencia al alimento que se daba a los campesinos para tomar y degustar en las milpas.
English translation:
THE ITACATE.
Hunger rises early morning already waiting at the table.
It prepares its itacate with fresh illusions; empty stomachs rush their march.
The starving know no law, it listen to the advice of necessity, gnawing at the heels of the dispossessed.
Pushing their steps claiming their future and risking their life, they amble their destiny.
Itacate comes from the Nahuatl word ‘Itacatl’ and refers to the food given to farmers to take and enjoy while working in the fields.
HAMBRE
El hambre traza signos que la urgencia descifra, franquea peligros navega soledad escudriña misterios impulsa migración.
Con paso acelerado al filo de la muerte transita hacia la vida.
Cuando el hambre se sacia se marcha por un rato pero siempre regresa.
En este mundo las soluciones nunca son permanentes.
English translation:
HUNGER
Hunger draws signs that urgency deciphers, crosses dangers, sails through solitude, probes mysteries, pushes migration.
With hurried steps, on the edge of death, it drives towards life.
When hunger is sated, it leaves for a while but always returns.
In this world, solutions are never permanent.
— José Carlos Osorno Covarrubias
