Read 3 Poems by
Alexandra Carrillo-Hayley:
Western University's First
Student Writer-in-Residence
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Los Fragmenticos
i. ______From the beginning we were brought together by fragments: snippets of exchanges, segments of dialogue, broken translations of vocalized love. ______We never really had a full conversation-- not together, anyway ___________but though some believe differing dialects can limit a relationship ______we had no problem ______sewing those fragments together: two consecrated hearts ______stitched as one. ii. April 25th, 2006: the day you died-- a Tuesday. ______Sliver of an eventful life, the end of the final pause in the constant caesurae every time we ______spoke. All that was left, all that ______remains. iii. After the tears after the speeches after the blackness we went to your apartment ______with(out) you. iv. You cherished: scraps of letters, birds, figurines, toys, photos, memories, quality time, God, family. We found: an incomplete set of Matryoshka dolls, torn sepia tone photographs, broken toys from Kinder surprises, orange-flavoured Vicks, vibrant pieces of a Parcheesi game, the remains of love letters, ornate boxes without lids, newspaper clippings, the chipped vase I made you, old postcards, little Colombian flags, half empty bottles of vanilla perfume, and prayers ______everywhere. v. Staring intently at the smeared ink feeling your swirls of blue forever etched into torn pages I can see where you cried ______(again and again). Hidden particles of a life I never knew and these paper thoughts only provide me with more and more ______questions. Can we ever truly understand through __________(rem)ember(ing)?s vi. Faint outline of blood (in the carpet) _____you fe _____l __________l. vii. Pieces of a person, fragments of a life, portions of a whole-- it wasn’t the same without you __________(and never will be). viii. The cabinet near the stove still showcases your figurines: things you considered special, remnants of your girlhood, fragments of your life, in a delicate, glass coffin. Art lines your walls, boxes line your closet, cards and letters outlined your heart. Though I can feel the broken bones of your past I can never put them back together. I can’t translate your feelings I can’t syndicate your letters I can’t glue the past to the present. The skeleton of your life is all that ______remains. ix. Dos abuelos solamente una abuelita y una familia mas grande pero ______what remains when they’re gone? x. 9 envelopes one for each of your children detailing the story of your life in perfect Spanish. But is that all there is? Is that what life is? A letter? A fraction? A chapter? ______In the end the memories might live on ________________but will remain nothing more than ___________ffragments. Apocalypse-o Birds perch on a thin telephone wire surveying the work of mechanical monsters as the burning scents of asphalt and destruction linger in my nostrils. In the mess of garbage and charred remains I search for familiarity: a shard of evidence of a life that once existed underneath the thinning, blackened trees. A little girl used to play here: skip, make bouquets for her mother, sing to the birds chirping above-- before suburbia claimed her island as battlegrounds. Dead birds hang from the wire, feathers of the past rain down in arcs of fire, and all that remains is what lives deep within the hearts of prisoners of war. Book(end)s: Thoughts of (dead) _____writers breathe through the words they publish: tattooed in bloodied ink on the faded flesh of books forcefully kissed by paper lips _____suffocating in thousands of parchment coffins _____dug up each day, _____exposing their li(v)es. _____In these text-tiled prison cells, the mummified souls of writers lie _____forever. (Breathe? Or gasp for air?) About the Student Writer-in-Residence Program at Western University In the fortieth year of the Writer-in-Residence program, USC and the Department of English have collaborated to create a new, parallel position, unique in Canada: the Student Writer-in-Residence (SWIR). Western hosts the longest-running Writer-in-Residence program in Canada. The program has given Western students direct access to such celebrated Canadian writers as Austin Clarke, Emma Donoghue, Margaret Laurence, and Alice Munro. The Student Writer-in-Residence Program will recognize and provide support for a talented student writer as he or she pursues the fourth year of undergraduate studies; the Western community will benefit from the student’s creativity, expertise and organizational skills. The honorarium will be $1,000. HOW TO APPLY If you are a third-year student in any discipline entering fourth year in 2013-14, full or part time, and if you are are an active creative writer, with organizational and community-building skills that will enrich the culture of creativity at Western, you should apply! Applications will be accepted up to midnight on April 10th, 2013. The SWIR will serve from September 2013 to April 2014. Click here for more detailed information on the position. Scott Becket is the 2013-14 Student Writer-in-Residence. |
Alex Carrillo-Hayley is a pescetarian, a tea enthusiast, and a bibliophile. She recently graduated with an Honours Specialization in English and a Minor in Dramatic Literature, and has been previously published in Propaganda. Her fourth year thesis project was a novella entitled Possession(s), and in 2013, she was Western’s first Student Writer-in-Residence. She loves Western so much that she is returning in the fall to pursue her MA in English
