Breathe. By Alex Z. Salinas

for George Floyd

My brother, 

My beauty,

I can’t breathe

When I hold back the

Black rain

Stacked with cosmic 

Grace, greenhouse 

Rage,

I can’t breathe, 

Beautiful brother, 

Your grasp is tight & I 

Long to hold back the

Fevered saturate

Inching down my

Neck

Vise-gripped by

Trigger fingers I

Noticed could use a

Clean clipping, a

Lover’s light 

Kiss,

Brother, 

My beauty, 

I can’t breathe 

When you squeeze

Down 

With the contempt of

Ira who razed her life

Mad & rife with rabies, 

Baby, 

Homie from another

Mother,

I can’t breathe

When you never

Let me go—

O sweet brother,

Zealous judge of soul,

Won’t you pretty please with a 

cherry in the chamber,

Please let me go?

Alex Z. Salinas lives in San Antonio, Texas. He is the author of WARBLES, a full-length poetry collection from Hekate Publishing (2019), and Dreamt, a limited-edition chapbook from Analog Submission Press (2020). His poems, short fiction and op-eds have appeared in various print and electronic publications, and he serves as poetry editor for the San Antonio Review. He holds an M.A. in English Literature and Language from St. Mary’s University.