By Robert René Galván
Aquí también… * The boy sat on the floor of Garner & Smith Bookstore, gazed up at the shop’s mascot which the blind man stroked in his lap as he and my father spoke Spanish in low tones; two poets met by chance during the librarian’s sojourn in Tejas. Oh, to have brought along the Kodak Instamatic to frame the moment in a white border for posterity, but consigned instead to wander the labyrinth of memory, Roberto and Jorge in deep conversation, my own attention fixed on the calico cat. * The first words of Borges’ sonnet about Texas
Robert René Galván, born in San Antonio of Indigenous/Mexican heritage, 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 has been featured in such publications as The Acentos Review, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Azahares Literary Magazine, Gyroscope, Hawaii Review, Hispanic Culture Review, Latino Book Review, Newtown Review, Panoply, Prachya Review, Sequestrum, Shoreline of Infinity, Somos en Escrito, Stillwater Review, West Texas Literary Review, and 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.