All the objects in the world
once touched.
Every missing finger.
The scissors.
The strands of hair.
The locks locked inside a box.
The letters you wrote.
The saliva you used to seal
the unformed words
inside your closed mouth.

Everything here is a ghost.
The eucalyptus branches
yanked by the wind.
The devil behind the blowing.
His hot breath
running with the Santa Anas.
Every leaf shudder, a whisper.
Every tongue of grass
the dogs piss on.
Every tongue leaf stomped
by child’s cleats.
Every shout is
the same hollow reminder.
Every drop of sweat.
Every goalie. Every goal.
Every point blocked.
Every block.
Every parent absent
or late or texting.
Every missed play.
Everything played
over and over
again.

Fernando Pérez is from Los Angeles, CA. His first collection of poems, A Song of Dismantling, is published by  The University of New Mexico Press. Fernando holds an MFA in poetry from Arizona State University and currently lives in Seattle, WA where he is an Assistant Professor of English at Bellevue College. His poetry has appeared in several journals, including The Suburban Review, Puerto Del Sol, Crab Orchard Review, and The Volta. His second collection of poems was selected as a finalist for the Letras Latinas / Red Hen Poetry Prize.