1
Easy
in the bright morning
between the outbuildings
the worker’s laugh
slices the cold air
The boss talks only
to the horses
Two boys drag
their mounts of wool
and leather in the dirt,
whispering They are
not yet students of cruelty
or imitation
They smile
Soon, they will all ride
away, made small
Around the house,
among the poplars:
the horizon, again
A perfect circle
Claudia Prado was born in Argentinian Patagonia and currently lives in Jersey City, New Jersey. She is the author of three books of Spanish-language poetry: El interior de la ballena, which received the bronze Concurso Régimen de Fomento a la Producción Literaria Nacional y Estímulo a la Industria Editorial del Fondo nacional de las Artes; Viajar de noche; and the forthcoming Primero. At present, she facilitates Spanish-language creative writing workshops for numerous immigrant organizations in New York and New Jersey and is a current Fellow of Utopian Practice at Culture Push (New York), awarded for boundary-pushing, interdisciplinary, and socially engaged artwork.
Rebecca Gayle Howell is Poetry Editor for Oxford American and the author of two critically-acclaimed collections, American Purgatory and Render/An Apocalypse. Among her awards are fellowships from United States Artists, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Carson McCullers Center. She lives in the town where she was born, Lexington, Kentucky.