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Torricelli

By Kyle Carrero Lopez

In 1994, U.S. Senator Bob Torricelli (D-New Jersey)    
introduced the Cuban Democracy Act, designed to
“wreak havoc on that island.”

 

I’ll wreak havoc            on that island            I’ll ravage

that island            I’ll plunder

that island       see torn asunder       that island 

I’ll pillage          that island

pilfer          that island        eye that land

and dye it            dull it          drain it maim it

shred it starve it          democratic

and democrat it                     and demagogue it

and havoc                 have it         have that

       island

I’ll havoc        that island        I’ll island        that island

I’ll upend       that island        I’ll see         that island

die          I’ll end          that island

isle end       that island

and I’ll rename         that island         I

 

 

 

 

Listen as Kyle Carrero Lopez reads Torricelli.
Added: Thursday, June 27, 2024  /  Used with permission.
Kyle Carrero Lopez
Photo by Tiye Rose.

Kyle Carrero Lopez is the author of MUSCLE MEMORY, the chapbook winner of the 2020 [PANK] Books Contest. He co-founded LEGACY, a Brooklyn-based production collective by and for Black queer artists, and his debut full-length collection PARTY LINE is forthcoming from Graywolf in early 2026. His work appears in The Nation, The Yale Review, POETRY, The Offing, Protean, and elsewhere.

Image Description: Kyle Carrero Lopez, a light-skinned Black man with short, curly hair and a mustache, stands in front of a concrete wall facing toward the right side. He wears square earrings and a structured, patterned green button-up.

Other poems by this author

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