Audio: Read by the author.
I want to know the names
of those who make reservoirs
of their own bodies.
Who, if shed from the fold,
sprout roots wherever they
can. Their Latin names,
composed in twos, always
evade me. So I call
them by their shapes:
little ear, happy
tongue, shark tooth.
I stand before a mirror
and look in the shadows
for the difference between
sign and symbol.
Joshua Garcia’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Arts & Letters, Massachusetts Review, Poet Lore, The Shore, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from the College of Charleston and will be a 2021–22 Stadler Fellow at Bucknell University.
