Bianca Alyssa Pérez

ELEGY

“The hearing is the last
to go,” they tell us
but we have stopped listening
to anything other than his body
breathing. Next to me, I hear
my mother promising to love beyond
this world and my face is wet and hot
and hurting. I hear my father’s laugh
in the echoes of some memory:
mi reina, mi güera. His ghost
in my ears. We have begun to play
his favorite songs, the ones he always sang
the wrong words to but no one cares
about that now. The last thing we hope he hears

is the ocean & the sound of his boat’s hull

hitting a small wave and the seagulls—
god, I hope he hears the seagulls.

Bianca Alyssa Pérez was born and raised in Mission, Texas — a small town bordering Mexico. She is currently an MFA Poetry candidate at Texas State University. She is the poetry editor at Porter House Review. Her poems have been published in Magma Poetry UK , ReclamationATX, The Sappho Diaries, East French Press and elsewhere. Her poetry centers on the idea of her Latin culture, family, spirituality, and womanhood.

Bianca Alyssa Pérez was born and raised in Mission, Texas -- a small town bordering Mexico. She is currently an MFA Poetry candidate at Texas State University. She is the Poetry Editor at Porter House Review. Her poems have been published in Magma Poetry UK , ReclamationATX, The Sappho Diaries, East French Press and elsewhere. Her poetry centers on the idea of her Latin culture, family, spirituality, and womanhood. She currently resides in a red cabin in the woods in San Marcos, Texas.

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