ní de aquí

By Marvin Contreras

Issue 45 • Spring 2022 • Poetry

at home a small brown boy sits in front of the tv
his mom tells him to sit farther away but he doesn’t
later he plays with his plastic heroes
SteveRogersClarkKentBruceWaynePeterParker
he knows he is never the hero

at school he believes the assembly when they show
pictures of dirty corn in bathtubs
Do not buy from the corn men they say

at a fiesta he hits a piñata harder than the others
tearing open Superman’s papier-mâché chest
he is the first to grab the little candies wrapped in plastic

at school he is given awards for good english
he likes being one of the smart ones
when Ale says share instead of chair
the boy laughs and doesn’t know why

Marvin Contreras

Marvin Contreras is a poet, editor, and outdoor enthusiast. He was raised in the San Gabriel Valley, and he has since graduated from the University of California – Riverside with a bachelor’s degree in English. When not working, reading, or writing, he is outside watching the sparrows. He currently lives in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Janus

Visual artist. He studied Graphic Design at the University of the Gulf of California in Baja California Sur. His worldview comes from figurative and abstract art along with his experiences as a resident in the cities of Mexico, Puebla, Tijuana, Los Cabos, and, for a long period of his childhood and adolescence in Tennessee, United States. An innate inclination for the arts, a family environment that fostered a culture, as well as a revealing visit to a painting workshop at the age of six, defined his vocation as an artist.