Soul Story

By Edwin Torres b. 1965 Edwin Torres

Who is quitting dogs today? Making them their sister?

Who is stretched out by a lamppost sibling? Illuminated by ransom’s note?

I was oblivious to pettiness until I saw its first handle: obey ignorance.

Stomach decisiveness. By that, this decision . . . no decision.

Let it be to gain all it can in one fetter . . . but if it be life,

let it attempt a failed recognition.

Let its thinker be the failure. My thinker is failure,

and I want to teach it how to move in this world.

Do you be or live?

To any the other wants.

To both these words, I fail to be.

When I am, but when not . . .

It is, as if alive.

Edwin Torres, “Soul Story” from The PoPedology of an Ambient Language, published by Atelos. Copyright © 2007 by Edwin Torres. Reprinted by permission of Edwin Torres.

Source: The PoPedology of an Ambient Language (Atelos, 2007)

Biography

A bilingual Nuyorican poet, Edwin Torres was born in the Bronx and is a longtime resident of New York City. He is a highly acclaimed performance poet, and his exuberant live shows combine physical improvisation and theater. He is also the author of the collections Fractured Humorous (1999) and In the Function of External Circumstances (2010); the chapbook Lung Poetry (1994), with photographs by Luigi Cazzaniga; and the . . .

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