EXCERPT

El Lechonsito

Sofia’s father brings home the pig wrapped in a plastic sheet. It’s night when he stumbles up the back steps and into the sunroom where Sofia is rolling Play-Doh in her hands. She sees the pig’s face peering out from behind its shroud, eyes cloudy and sunk, mouth parted so she can see the texture of its tongue. Her father lays the lechon on their dinner table where pink puddles on the floor beneath. The animal is split down the middle. Sofia can count its ribs, the place where its heart must have beat. For days, the house will smell like dead piglet, an odor that rises also from her father’s skin and the bed of his nails, that lives in his pillow and every surface he rests his head.

ABOUT THE POET

Lisette Alonso is a south Florida native who has held a variety of non-writing-related jobs, the most demanding of which has been mother of four. She holds an MFA from the University of Miami and is the author of the poetry chapbook The Album of Untaken Photos (The Lune, 2016). Her poetry has appeared with New Letters, The Tishman Review, The Nashville Review, and Mothers Always Write. You can see her collaborate with her sister online at Hobart Pulp and Cahoodaloodaling.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Janelle Garcia holds an MFA in creative writing from Florida Atlantic University. Her work has appeared in Kenyon Review Online, Quarter After Eight, Saw Palm, and Black Warrior Review among other journals. Janelle is fascinated by the storytelling power of photography and the intersection between word and image. She writes and shoots from South Florida.

OTHERBOOKS

The Album of Untaken Photos (The Lune, 2016)