Imprints

Darks rings carve a Fire

Island log.

Light footsteps patch

the trails of mud.

Each oldest tree

a woods’ heirloom, like a gold

ring or trauma passed down.

My father’s father

would punish him with kneeling

on small beds of raw white rice, his dead

load spread on knives

of grain for minutes.

Inside each minute a gate

to a minute, and another

and another,

till each contains ten

or thirty of itself.

And when his father lets him

it takes time to stand back up,

knees numb, all white

and gnashed and red, left sectioned

and thorned like pineapple flesh.

Kyle Carrero Lopez was born to Cuban parents in northern New Jersey. He co-founded LEGACY, a production collective by and for Black queer artists, and is the author of MUSCLE MEMORY, the chapbook winner of the 2020 [PANK] Books contest. His recent publications include Prolit, Best New Poets 2021, Poem-a-Day, and The Cincinnati Review.