Eduardo Martínez-Leyva earned an MFA from Columbia University and was writer in residence at St. Alban’s School for Boys in Washington DC. Born in El Paso to Mexican immigrants, he lives and teaches in New York City.


Photo credit: Nicholas Nichols.

Vaquero

by Eduardo Martínez-Leyva

You want to put your darkness in me. All of it.
As if it always belonged to me. Ruthless

rattlesnake of a man. Riding shotgun down
the highway, not ashamed. What could possibly


possess you? To think an entire night could fit
in me. Slip inside the black sky’s haunches and limbs.


The patient stars with their glittery thighs.
The forearms. Deep in the heart of Texas.


I could ruin you. Spend an afternoon with my head
on your chest. The wild-wild-west of you sleeping
People on couch
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