Oswaldo Vargas
Cruz Season
It’s the season of overflowing into more than one cupped pair of hands.
Some of me slips through their fingers.
It’s also the season of crosses on hilltops,
one two three men at their most exposed.
I look to both sides of me, fellow sinners who believed the lie
that we can wade into this dream and not be caught.
We still breathe in as much as our lungs allow,
we’ll need it for where we are going next.
Oswaldo Vargas reads “Cruz Season”
Oswaldo Vargas is a former farmworker, a 2021 recipient of the Undocupoets Fellowship and featured in the Poem-a-Day series by the Academy of American Poets. He has been anthologized in Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color and Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century, among others. His work can also be seen in places like Narrative Magazine and West Trade Review. He lives and dreams in Sacramento, CA.