AL HOMBRE

When you were first created—
the body could not
hold
together.

tezontle for flesh,
pulped earth for blood

the face
a horrid thing:

without eyes, tongue

Simply could not do.

So
down
came

the great red
fists

an expression of rage
against my chest

tan! tan!
como el tambor

pulped you;
as with maguey
santa ana horses

angry at your god—

the indentation of a thumb
led to mouth
stray kernels: teeth

forming

the flippant flick beginning at the palate
ending at the roof of the mouth

/tl/ [suffix]
straight against the teeth
as in nepanotl: a state of togetherness

not to be mistaken for:
/tɬ͡/ [prefix]
as in tla: something of indeterminate origin
& tlatqui: to be of or belong to

lateral—
with a wider friction of breath

as in
cupping coral seeds
in the mouth

only to
spit them out.

I understood then
what

you were. created first to untether—
the body now
holding
the tongue
sharp as a serpent.

PORTRAIT OF CONVERGENCE [AS ALCHEMICAL RITE]

esoteric
whaleoil,
trimmings of
elksfeet, tigersmaw,
elversteeth, newts-tongue,
the sweet hind of
a collared peccary,
wicks of twisted jute,
us and the men
we love. in bed
last night you offered
me. your hand:
a cauterisation.

CAPGRAS DELUSION

this time
something is different

you are you
although you aren’t

a lea tilled
your arms the pen

hold me in place now
only functional

songs don’t
sound the same

stars become
rats

most of all

there is a staggering
lack of tenderness

i’m fond of you
i am

even when you apparate
here again

and not the same
at all

Car Lara is a Queens born experimental writer of Mexican and Honduran heritage. A recipient of the 2024–25 Emerge–Surface–Be Fellowship, their bilingual work explores transculturality and the domestic through playful typography and symbol-based forms and has appeared in the Poetry Project Newsletter, Fine Print Press and Poetry in Performance, a publication within City College of New York.