ldr blues beginning & ending with takis by Alejandro Pérez
Managing editor Randi Clemens on today’s bonus poem: I always knew snack foods could create tender, meaningful connections, but this beautifully succinct and direct piece by Pérez proves this. However, this isn't just a poem about Takis. This is a piece that knows love and longing and isn’t afraid to be vulnerable in its awareness of emotion and stained fingers.
ldr blues beginning & ending with takis
i’m scarfing
down a bag
of family size
takis
without water
at hand
& i’m letting
the spicy red
powder settle
on my lips
& my lips
are burning
& they’re
begging
to be cleaned
& they’re
begging
for touch
& you’re
a thousand
miles away
& i’m living
the struggle
& i’m bumping
hey there delilah
& the bridge is
coming up
& i’m feeling
like a bridge
on the brink
of collapse
& i’m feeling
like a bridge
that collapsed
into a river
like a mess
of broken
sinking parts
& i’m thinking
of all the things
you love
like waffles &
matcha &
lorde & kehlani
& honey & takis
& i’m eating
takis & they’re
staining
my fingers
& my fingers
are longing
for another
hand to hold
Alejandro Pérez is a student at Columbia University in New York. He is a 2019 Pushcart Prize nominee whose poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Georgia Review, Boulevard, Missouri Review, Pacifica Literary Review, DIAGRAM, Blue Earth Review, Salamander, The Los Angeles Review, and Spanish-language magazines in Venezuela, Chile, and Spain. He is currently a staff reader for the poetry teams at The Adroit Journal and Ploughshares.
