Cowboy Park
For queer Latinx Eduardo Martínez-Leyva, raised in El Paso by Mexican immigrants, piecing together a suitable cloak of masculinity is as much about survival as it is identity. His brother’s detainment and deportation serves as a uniquely cruel facet of the Mexican American experience, one Eduardo internalizes at great peril to his mental health. Cowboy Park is his debut collection. He lives and teaches in New York City after earning his MFA from Columbia University.
I NEVER WANTED TO SPEAK
(first published in Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color)of the house facing Cowboy Park
where my childhood pets are buried.Eight small skulls scattered, each
a burned-out bulb keeping the fig treecompany, guarding the needles
I’d eventually unearth. My neighbor,the infected queen, taught me
how to shoot down pigeons.Think of them as compliments, he’d say.
By the time I was old enough to knowwhat he meant, it was too late
for him. Still, he slept inside mefor many seasons, cocking
his shotgun at a flinching sky.Disguised in pill and sneer,
he waited for warmth to enter the body.
Reviewed by
Matt Sutherland
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
