a bird made of dust and blue feathers
can’t be caged in a tiny match box
unless its wings and vertebrae are pinned
down with a needle that loves to split flesh
Gerardo Pacheco Matus
Gerardo Pacheco Matus is a Mayan Native and recipient of fellowships from Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, CantoMundo, The Frost Place, and Macondo. Pacheco was awarded the Joseph Henry Jackson Award. His poems, essays, and short fiction have appeared and are forthcoming from the Grantmakers in the Arts, Apricity Press, Amistad Howard-University, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, The Packinghouse Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, West Branch Wired, Four Way Review, The Cortland Review, Nashville Review, Pilgrimage Magazine, Memorious Magazine, Tin House Magazine, Play on Words, Anomaly Press, and Peripheries Journal.