Ruiz

Bio

Zandra Ruiz is a recent graduate from Rutgers University, where she led a student literary magazine entitled Objet d'Art. She is the 2013 winner of the Edna Herzberg Prize for Poetry, and has work forthcoming in Spires and Clockwise Cat. She currently resides in Hoboken, NJ.

2 Poems by Zandra Ruiz

A Poor Sonnet For My Father

my wife pitched a bible at my head—hit—
when i left a fishing pole’s shadow on
her son. on my cheek, middle girl gave a stitch
when i kicked her dog one night, drunk.

and my mother shot my german shepherd.
nine years old, with my father’s gun, father
who kicked my balls that year, kicked my balls so hard
i almost lost one. his gun. my dog, a martyr.

the things we give each other for love
betray us. i made my girls a dollhouse
once—it molded. their mother threw it out.
i promised her a house i’ve yet to prove—

in thirty years we’ve given each other
three daughters, two sons, a bruise, another.

Buck Road Reverse

your hands numb on the wheel
the road will never end.

stitched through with yellow lines
sidewalks along the sides

tremble, a still language
in periphery a

radio. can you see?
i can't hear you through the

hands clutched between my legs
the seats slick, summer sweat

for this vessel, fly with
space, blessed momentum

for the split of silence
two does perched and watching