Grasshoppers Before Gods | Karla Cordero

A 2015 Loft Literary Center Spoken Word Immersion Fellow, Karla Cordero is a writer, educator, and activist from the borderlands of Southern California. She is the founder and editor of Spit Journal, an online literary review for poetry and social justice. Her work has appeared in Word Riot, Poetry International, The Acentos Review, Toe Good Poetry, among other publications.        EVERYTHING DIES HEREThis city dries every mouth,a land were sun ownsour bodies. Men continue to harvestonion—pant like street dogs for pennies.Their wives count babies—include the chickens.Slam tortillas flat & stir soup pots for hours.The children learn to move slow for preservation.Draw crayon glaciers then lick the paper soggy.Mother this desert murders me slow—I crave rain—let me run kite stringon arid fingers & leave this city.Search out meadows & learn the tasteof morning dew.