Alexander Perez

Juniper & On Loneliness, Packington Review, Volume 19, Spring 2023

In the Town Square, Lit. 202, Issue 4, Winter 2022

How to Save Your Moonlight, the light ekphrastic, February 2023

Arriving Only to Get Lost & El prisionero, Barzakh, Winter 2023

Solstice, Front Porch Review, Volume 15, January 2023

black eyed susan & irreparable, The Q&A Queerzine, Issue 3

dress up & after the flood, South Florida Poetry Journal, #27

underfoot & forestlings, Ouch! Vol. 1, December 2022

Variations on a Silent Theme, Moss Piglet, October 2022

Dance Macabre, Rue Scribe, Fall 2022

Waltzing With Mozart, Variety Pack, Issue 8

ORPHAN, New Note Poetry Magazine, Summer 2022

QUILT SQUARE, Queer Toronto Literary Magazine Gallery

Additional poems published in the The Quarter(ly) Volume 3, Cerasus Magazine Issue 7, Honeyguide Literary Magazine Issue 5, and RFD Magazine Number 192 Winter 2022 for purchase.

Poems forthcoming in Sixfold, Blue Unicorn, Awakenings Review, Reunion: The Dallas Review, The Ekphrastic Review, As It Ought to Be Magazine, and The New Note 2022 Poetry Anthology

The poem below – “After the Flood” – will appear in my first chapbook entitled IMMORTAL JELLYFISH to be published by Finishing Line Press in fall 2023.

AFTER THE FLOOD

i don’t
wish
i was
the
immortal
jellyfish

soon
we’ll
all be
eternal

i rather
play
dead

what’s
the forecast
for today?

will these
summer
stay puff
clouds
soon
dissolve
into
rain?

my
translucent
mother
died
in the
flood
entrapped
in a
network
of
blood-
blue
veins

i waited
outside
in the
rescue
boat
to see
if
our house
would spit
her out

i can
only
imagine
she
propelled
herself
up
to the
watery
surface
of heaven

i caught
her rise:

a cloud-
shaped
jellyfish

the ramshackle
house
has been
transformed

a nice
family
lives there
now

i walked
by
with
my
grief
on a
leash

a young
spritely
girl
swung
on a
tree limb

a boy
played
hide-and-seek

a man
covered
in
fish scales
that
sparkled
like the
spray
of the
sprinkler
keeping
fire
at bay
searched
stealthily

the boy
hid
in the tree

the girl
called
“Over here!”

the boy flew down
like a dove

my grief
barked

all three
figures
disappeared
into
thin
air

i think
they were
the Trinity

after that
i
muzzled
my grief
afraid
to
scare off
another
miracle

now it
can
only
moan

clouds
stockpile
lightening
for their
earth-
age
war
against
the persian
blue sky

i wait
for the
rain
to see
if my
mother
comes back
down
a tentacled
medusa

perezpoetrystudio@gmail.com or IG @perezpoet