I'd go skateboarding late,
near midnight, on Christmas Eve
where my aunt used to live
in the San Fernando Valley,
and where it was cold in the winter,
as cold as Southern California gets.
There were more stars in the valley,
and I loved gazing up at them
to the sound of my wheels
grinding on the asphalt.
I remember pushing my board up big, quiet hills
lined with beautiful gabled houses
with perfect lawns and two, or three, car garages,
lit pathways leading up to black front doors
between white Corinthian columns.
I imagined gorgeous blond daughters
in each house, on the phone in pink rooms,
painting their toenails, giggling with one another.
But the best part was finally reaching
the top of some intersection, stopping under a streetlight,
completely alone, to sit on the curb for a while.
Even then, maybe fourteen, I wished for poetry,
for more poetry under the flickering light.
isbn 1-59661-069-7
32 pages/$9
In “The Dream,” Alejandro Escudé regrets the inability to “see above” his “earthbound eye” into “an idea for Art.” Readers will welcome this apparent failure, for it yields these defiantly “earthbound” poems, which guide us through the dance club ForePlay, the scene of a car accident, a waiting room full of disgruntled jurors, the Cattle Call Rodeo, and a stadium overrun with pissed-off baseball fans. The poems’ “unknown physics” lies in their inability to decide whether the world is as harmless and welcoming as a child’s multi-colored puzzle or as menacing as a beach where airplanes nose-dive into the ocean “on purpose.” Like Escudé’s previous volume, this chapbook contains cameos by the poet’s carpenter father, whose presence informs, perhaps, the unassuming stability of the poem’s free-verse structure, as well and the poet’s willingness to shape a poem out of whatever materials are at hand. Unknown Physics reminds us that “the chore of self” is inextricable from remembering to “change the PIN number to something you’ll remember.”
—Eric Gudas
These poems first appeared in the following journals:
King Log, ”Solitude”
Main Street Rag, “My Classrooms” (forthcoming)
Small Brushes, “Lock-Out”
Tryst, “The Dream”
The Poet’s Art, “Old Shoes”
“Last Piece,” is dedicated to my uncle, Hans Luternauer.
“Nights Out with Jimmy,” is dedicated to my old friend, Jimmy Levy.
I also thank my students for inspiring me to be a better teacher and writer. Last, I want to thank my wife, Jennifer, who, along with providing me with encouragement and companionship, is also a keen and reliable editor.
Alejandro Escudé teaches English at St. Monica Catholic High School in Santa Monica, California. He holds a master's degree in creative writing from UC Davis, where he won the 2003 UC Poet Laureate Award. Among other journals, his work has been published in The Lilliput Review, California Quarterly, and Main Street Rag (forthcoming). His first collection of poems, titled Where Else But Here, was published by March Street Press. He is originally from Córdoba, Argentina. Interested readers can also go to alejandroescude.com for more information.