BIO
Robert René Galván, born in San Antonio, resides in New York City where he works as a professional musician and poet. His collections of poems are Meteors, published by Lux Nova Press and Undesirable: Race and Remembrance, Somos en Escrito Foundation Press, Standing Stones, Finishing Line Press and The Shadow of Time, Adelaide Books. His poetry was recently featured in Adelaide Literary Magazine, Azahares Literary Magazine, Gyroscope, Hawaii Review, Hispanic Culture Review, Newtown Review, Panoply, Prachya Review, Sequestrum, Shoreline of Infinity, Somos en Escrito, Stillwater Review, West Texas Literary Review, and the Winter 2018 issue of UU World. He is a Shortlist Winner Nominee in the 2018 Adelaide Literary Award for Best Poem. Recently, his poems are featured in Puro ChicanX Writers of the 21st Century(2nd Edition) and in Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art and Thought. His poems have been nominated for Best of Web and the Pushcart Prize. His poem, Awakening, was featured in the author’s voice on NPR as part of National Poetry Month in the Spring of 2021.
Chita
Abuelita’s
name was
María
de Jesus Ruiz Mireles Ruiz,
but
everyone called her Chita.
She,
the steward
of
yerbas and chile pitín,
calabacítas
and sprawling
patches
of mint,
towers
of long-stemmed
gladiolas.
The
patron saint of feral cats
and
guardian of the henhouse
offered
the boy
huevos
rancheros,
lime
Jarritos and pan dulce
for
breakfast;
at
dinner there were mounds
of
tamales and a pot of frijoles
which
had simmered all day –
tortillas.
I
rarely saw her smile,
but
when my father
embraced
her she giggled
like
a schoolgirl,
and
in all those years
I
never saw Papi
hug
his own mother.
Balam
Perhaps
it was a ghost from the glare,
Or
the spectre of heat rising from the dust,
But
I sensed his presence on the trail.
Later,
in the gloaming light
When
shadows become flesh,
Luminous
gold disks betray his ascent
From
Xibalba.
He
bears many names:
Ocelotl, pantera onca, tigre, jaguar,
Balam – Lord of Darkness.
All
my life I have stalked my tonal
And
he has stalked me.
Now
as we meet,
We
are merged like those strange
Olmec
stones,
Half
man, half beast:
A
god.
I
thought the jungle prowl
Had
been a dream, but when I awoke
A
paw print held the midnight rain.