An excerpt from The Rumpus Poetry Book Club’s
August selection, subscribe by July 15, 2022 to receive,
Brother Sleep by Aldo Amparán
forthcoming from Alice James Books on September 13, 2022
42
my name was
candle lit
smoke vanished
in a man’s silent
inhalation
smoke held
in the pueblo’s lungs
I yearn
to keep dancing
in his breath
Aldo Amparán (pronouns: he/they) is a poet, writer, & translator born & raised in the sister cities of El Paso, TX, USA, & Ciudad Juárez, CH, MX. He is the author of Brother Sleep (Alice James Books, 2022), winner of the 2020 Alice James Award.
He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts & CantoMundo. His work appears in, or is forthcoming from, AGNI, Best New Poets, Black Warrior Review, Cherry Tree, Fugue, Gulf Coast, The Journal, Kenyon Review Online, Ninth Letter, The Normal School, Poetry Northwest, The Southampton Review, Washington Square Review, & elsewhere.
He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Texas at El Paso, where he teaches.
