Roy G. Guzmán
Photo by Michael Chuderski
Bio
Roy G. Guzmán was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and grew up in Miami, Florida. They are currently pursuing a PhD in Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, where they also received an MFA in creative writing. Guzmán is the author of the chapbook Restored Mural for Orlando and co-editor of Pulse/Pulso: In Remembrance of Orlando. Their work has appeared in Poetry, The Rumpus, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Best of the Net 2017, and Best New Poets 2017. Guzmán is a 2017 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow. Their debut collection will be published by Graywolf Press in 2020.
The current political climate has posed lots of financial, emotional, and physical challenges to artists, and I have not been spared from any of them. As a writer from Honduras, the Central American caravans at the border as well as the blatant dismissal of the arts in the United States have felt like a twofold attack on my ability to survive and exercise my poetic practice. Unfortunately, marginalized writers have long been used to navigating this kind of racism and erasure.
Receiving a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts means I can be in conversation with some of the most exciting poets creating alternative worlds through which I can continue to imagine and generate new work. These very tangible resources will allow me to pay off debt that burdens me with the need to work different jobs. I also foresee using some of these funds to keep writing during the summer and possibly travel for research associated with my second book. I will forever remain grateful to the NEA, its employees, taxpayers, the selections committee, and my support groups for this incredible honor.
from “Self-Portrait According to George W. Bush”
[COLORES/DRONES]
BBQ Spare Ribs (5) costillas barbeque (5)………………………………....…..........7.25
Estás caught otra vez entre qué comer today and the rest of the week because you’ve started seeing a gastroenterologist and he’s said we’ve got to be careful about your colon because it’s inflamed. Te recuerdas
Wonton Soup sopa de mariposas…………………….………...……………….2.00/3.00
of all the MSG you consumed in college, from that place with the bubble tea que creo qu’is closed by now? They took away the Pizza Hut, left un McDonald’s. Some wounds nunca se abandonan tan easy. El frío
Hot & Sour Soup sopa picante y agria………………………...………………….….4.00
of those Hyde Park streets nunca went away, as an extension of the art project you ended up embodying, pero which you can’t comprehend because you’re always living outside of it. Like a breeze en una bandera
Special Fried Rice especial de la casa…………………..........................…5.50/7.75/16.25
que se dobla y se dobla or a house que reza todas las noches for you not to come back. Because la lengua del immigrant can wrap any leftovers, palos de guayaba, pistas de aviones, el cura que nunca pudo bless you.
Chop Suey Chicken con pollo………………………..………………………..6.00/7.75
And when you got a tu dorm, tu roommate te dice que his Russian is as rich as Chekhov’s, but he’s not interested in the stories of possession you carry en tu pecho de pelos que se enredan into huts para los que se escapan.
Chicken Lo Mein tallarines con pollo……………………….……...………….6.00/8.50
You drive past los Home Depots, los restaurantes hondureños, y te entra una tristeza to know that what connects you to your community is suspicion, regret, el why didn’t I go to school, el why you’ve been so lucky
Chicken w. Broccoli pollo con brócoli……………………....….………..……6.00/8.00
que your parents never forced you to get a job, you could concentrate on your materias, where would we be if we’d been given the same opportunities you’ve had, although yo vivo in a house where I’m waiting
Shrimp w. Lobster Sauce camarones con salsa de langosta…………………....6.50/9.50
for the master to return. I’m a wounded canino, can’t you tell? Barking at myself for not barking at the forms of trees. Tantos knots en la garganta como en los zapatos one can’t stop to loosen because one has to return
Sweet & Sour Chicken pollo agridulce……………….....………........………...6.00/9.00
to work o te va a despedir el patrón. Tu madre begs you to stop spending your money en chucherías, en going out con la otra gente de dinero, that’s not why you left Miami, that’s not why she’s detonating bombs on her back.
Soda refrescos…………………………………………………….…..……...…....….1.00
But what she doesn’t know is that loneliness is a symptom one becomes so adept at concretizing in a foreign land, en el país de las manos rajadas,
where you eat a meal cooked by someone who has a similar story de huesos.
(originally published in the anthology Imaniman: Poets Writing in the Anzalduan Borderlands)