San Juan of the Tourists - Marigloria Palma

I used to run around with my seven Sundays folded
under my arm and seven pigeons crowning my brow.
I would wander the streets free and caught
in the sun’s crosshairs. The city is a herd
of feelings jammed in the traffic

Nothing - Julia de Burgos

Since life is nothing in your philosophy,
let’s drink to the fact of not being our bodies.
Let's drink to the nothing of your sensual lips,
which are sensual zeros in your blue kisses:

Puerto Rican Obituary - Pedro Pietri

they worked
they were always on time
they were never late

Ay Ay Ay de la Grifa Negra - Julia de Burgos

Ay ay ay, that I’m kinky-haired and pure black;

kinky hair, Kafir lips

and my flat nose Mozambiques.

Rio Grande de Loiza! - Julia de Burgos

Rio Grande de Loiza!... Elongate yourself in my spirit

and let my soul lose itself in your rivulets,

finding the fountain that robbed you as a child

and in a crazed impulse returned you to the path.

black majesty - Luis Pales Matos

Through the fiery Antillean street

Va Tembandumba de la Quimbamba

—Rumba, macumba, candombe, bambula—

Between two rows of black faces.