Somewhere Else in Texas — Blackbird Archive

← v15n1, Spring 2016

Somewhere else in Texas, a father is cleaning out his daughter’s car,

and it’s a mess, beautiful, of silver wrappers, hairbands, emptied yogurt bowls.

He takes it all and puts it into the bin.

He gathers loose coins, rings, two handbags, takes them inside.

Jacqueline Balderrama is the author of the chapbook Nectar and Small (Finishing Line Press 2019), and serves as poetry editor for Iron City Magazine and co-poetry editor for Quarterly West . She is the recipient of a 2019 Intro Journal Award and the 2012–13 Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize for individual poems. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Hayden ’ s Ferry Review , Miramar Magazine , and New Ohio Review . She is a PhD candidate in literature and creative writing at the University of Utah. Photo by Jesus Huerta Jr.