Cowboy Park

Eduardo MartÍnez-Leyva was born in El Paso, TX, to Mexican immigrants. His work has appeared in Poetry, The Boston Review, The Adroit Journal, Frontier Poetry, The Hopkins Review, Best New Poets, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships from CantoMundo, the Frost Place, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Lambda Literary Foundation, along with a teaching fellowship from Columbia University, where he earned his MFA. He was the writer-in-residence at St. Alban’s School for Boys in Washington, DC, and teaches and resides in New York City.

• I.Learning the LanguageColoreteESL LessonThe Boy inside the GunI Never Wanted to SpeakGrief WorkshopLone StarPortrait of My Mother in Her YouthSon of a GunTormentaComposite SketchI Was Only a BoyPortrait of Aging FatherWith Jesus in Our MouthsPortrait of My Mother Studying for Her Citizenship ExamAngeloSin DocumentosDon’t Look Back, Little HaloStill Life with Post-traumatic Stress DisorderPortrait of Angelo with his PossessionsConfirmationAlmost-GriefII.Scenes from the Bone OrchardPortrait of a Boy on the Other Side of a Glory HoleSmall VicesCowboy ParkVaqueroShow PonyAnd God Punished Him for Being DisobedientGod May Squeeze but Won’t Strangle YouToreroMud SongEstrellitaGod Made Dirt, and Dirt Don’t HurtTeaseAdulteryGod Gave You Hands, So Use ThemHorseshoeNow You’re TalkingOde to a Leather HarnessBracero with a Tattoo of the Virgin MotherNegation Litany for a Fallen GodThere is Little Left to Say About HarmNostalgia CruisingIII.When I Spoke the Language of DonkeysAfter the Shooting, You Have a Panic Attack In the SupermarketPortrait of an Absent BrotherMordidaWhat’s Above Us Is Either Dead or Still DyingAngelo Is Probably DeadA Protagonist Once SaidLetters from a Younger Brother, MourningRecuperadoPortrait of Speaker inside a Burning HouseBroomtail BalladThe Simple HourCowboy ParkMustangPurgatoryPortrait of the Speaker Riding a Greyhound BusNotesAcknowledgments