Ariel Francisco

BIO

Ariel Francisco is the author of All My Heroes Are Broke (C&R Press, 2017) and Before Snowfall, After Rain (Glass Poetry Press, 2016). Born in the Bronx to Dominican and Guatemalan parents, he completed his MFA at Florida International University in Miami. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Academy of American Poets, The American Poetry Review, Best New Poets 2016, Gulf Coast, Washington Square, and elsewhere. He lives and teaches in South Florida.    

RUINS OF EARLIEST CHURCH IN AMERICA

DISCOVERED IN FLORIDA

 

Hurricane Matthew missed us but

really fucked up St. Augustine, tore

out a shopping mall to reveal a five-

hundred year old skeleton, folded

arms pressed against his chest, head

facing east, staring down the storm

that let the air wash over him once

again. Is there anything more Florida

than being buried under a church that

will be buried under a shopping mall

that will be ripped open by a hurricane

named after one of the twelve apostles?

All I know is I don’t want to die here

but if I do, bury me so deep that no

one ever finds me. Listen, I know you

can't dig very far into the Florida ground

but please promise me that when your

shovel breaks the final limestone and

splashes dark water, you’ll keep digging.

 


 

 

MY DAD WENT TO CUBA AND ALL I GOT

WAS THIS SHITTY HEMINGWAY T-SHIRT


Too big and too ugly, the same shade of

orange as my old Home Depot apron,

his big square face square in the middle

like a team logo, his sloppy combover

the waves that punch at the Malecón—

he looks half drunk, half sad, and I think

that’s how I must look when I’m rejected

by a beautiful woman at the bar— yes,

that must be what the bartender sees

when I order my umpteenth rum & coke,

bite the lime wedge like a mouthguard.

© The Acentos Review 2017