Raquel Salas Rivera with coquíes in background:

“ataúd abierto para un obituario puertorriqueño” // “open casket for a puerto rican obituary”

This poem responds to Pedro Pietri’s “Puerto Rican Obituary” by expanding it to include those Puerto Ricans that still live in Puerto Rico, recontextualizing the imagined return in contemporary Puerto Rico. It is both an homage and answer to Pietri’s poem. I am constantly searching for ways to capture what it is like to live in Puerto Rico. This poem is the closest I’ve come to that description.

lo terciario / the tertiary by Raquel Salas Rivera

Music: "Shift of Currents" by Blue Dot Sessions // CC BY-NC 2.0