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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J. Michael Martinez
J. Michael Martinez
In 2009, Martinez's collection Heredities was selected by Juan Felipe Herrera for the Academy of American Poets' Walt Whitman Award...
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Xicano  
by J. Michael Martinez
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as light
               shaped by trajectory.

a wind settles in the body.
Echécatl the breath, the flint & spark.
the house of prayers.

I am

when sounds exchange questions
when light enters the lung
when given

the noun:                a variable absence
a law               pinned to a quail's wing.




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Audio Clip
Oct. 16, 2009
Tischman Auditorium, New York City
From the Academy Audio Archive



First appeared in New American Writing. Copyright © by J. Michael Martinez. From Heredities (LSU, 2010) by J. Michael Martinez. Appears with permission of the author.
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