xochi quetzali cartland
Poet of the Year, Runner-up
xochi quetzali cartland is a queer & latina poet, seamstress, & transformative justice practitioner living in Washington, DC. Her work has appeared in Common Ground Review, Muzzle Magazine, Little Patuxent Review & elsewhere, as well as supported with fellowships from National Arts Strategies & Brooklyn Poets.
This town & I are the same:
we both want to be more than a place people pass through.
So I take our pocket sized city to the post office, sure
I could ship all of Providence to you for 68 cents. Please,
I tell the postman. We’ve got a problem that can’t be folded
down.
I am chronically impatient. As a poet who tends to write quickly & dislikes having unfinished pieces, I really struggle with the waiting part of writing. But las palabras son semillas reminds me that no writing is ever wasted. Even the pieces that won’t ever grow up to be poems, they will become fertile compost from which other language is born.
August 19, 2024