Poem of the Week

Alberto Álvaro Ríos is the author of numerous poetry collections, including A Small Story about the Sky; three short story collections; and a memoir, Capirotada, which received the Latino Literary Hall of Fame Award. He is the recipient of a Walt Whitman Award, as well as six Pushcart Prizes in poetry and fiction. His poetry collection The Theater of Night won the 2007 PEN/ Beyond Margins Award. Ríos is Regents’ Professor at Arizona State University.

Feeding the Compost Heap

by Alberto Álvaro Ríos

Dried teas and sweet peels, shriveling rinds and still-wet

fruit—
The compost gatherings speak something to the day and whimper

In the night, alive with their odd congress, this meeting of sours,
Blackness, citrus yellows, coffee grounds, hard sticks and green


Leaves half-brown, onion skins and onion itself, apple and orange
Seeds, pear stems and cut grass, old pomegranates and carrot.
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