From César L. de León’s Facebook post

From His Facebook  Post
by César L. de León

Can you feel them
How they rage
How they mourn
For a murdered poet

The birds & every thirsty ghost do
Their lament in your throat like a fist

After Renée Good was murdered by ICE agents, I learned she was a poet. I don’t know why I didn’t bring myself to select one of her poems for this year’s celebration posts. If anything, her poem “On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs” would have been good. The way it describes the sense of wonder and magic we have as children and how we lose it as we learn more about the world around us.

Poets came out en masse to mourn her death. A few of my friends wrote about it on their various social accounts. César’s words stood out. Maybe it’s because the Meta algorithm insisted that I read the post multiple times. Maybe I’m bias, but his words have already spoken to a part of me that I’ve long ignored. He has this bad habit of inspiring me to write again. I will never admit it. This isn’t admission, César.

I won’t link his Facebook page out of privacy purposes. However, you can read his Texas Institute of Letters Literary Award winning debut Speaking with Grackles by Soapberry Trees.