On fish bones by jo reyes-boital
by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
Hi. I’m Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, a poet born in Northwest Texas, here for Poets on the Plains. I’ve got some coffee on the table and I’m here to offer a poem titled “fish bones” from Texas Tech poet jo reyes-boitel.
jo reyes-boitel is a poet and playwright pursuing a Ph.D. in Literature at Texas Tech University. They gained an MFA at the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley where she taught undergraduate creative writing courses. Their publications include Michael + Josephine (FlowerSong Press, 2019), the chapbook mouth (Neon Hemlock, 2021), and jo has also written and produced “she wears bells,” a hybrid opera, which was a finalist in Guerilla Opera’s 2021 virtual festival. jo is a fellow of Macondo, where I met her, and VoNA/Voices of Our Nations. Their most recent publication is the matchstick litanies (Next Page Press, 2023).
Here’s “fish bones”
fish bones
within the loops and lines of our initial correspondence,
each letter holds the history of its defining nature
now, some will not slip cleanly from my mouth
instead hook into the valley of my lips,
force themselves through the fleshiness of my cheek,
and attempt to jump-swim back down my throat
choke me with their spurred dorsal fin, gaping gills
a fish refusing its fate
and I’m reminded of that time at the lake,
where tannins colored the bottom of our paper cups,
dew falling on our faces,
and you told me I tasted like the lake
– spruce and freshwater life –
a memory we share, even if, by next morning,
we see the evening differently
me acutely aware you will never claim me
while you suffer with the fish bones you dared swallow
even through your denial,
you cannot question how,
when I say your name,
my voice always quivers
Poem “Fish Bones” Copyright © 2025 by jo reyes-boitel.
Originally published in Poem-a-Dayon April 16, 2025
Academy of American Poets
https://poets.org/poem/fish-bones
We begin the poem witnessing an epistolary exchange through cursive cues, the art of the letter embraced, yet articulation is hung up as an unexpected bone in a bite might halter. This poem is alive, captivating, brings us fully into the realm as fast as a fish might flutter up from out of sight.
Then, language enjoins physique with performative angles and baiting at stake, all in matters of fish moves and motivations, and suddenly memory of time at a lake, with tannins, and romance approaching swimmingly, relieving speaker from the halter the admirer now must work through and both left with a bit of shiver, with denial and utterance, and seeming to advance mystery in a back out of water, slip up, leaving us hanging, on a voice quivering over the name of the other and back to ourselves with a paper cup view into the wonder of moments, and slight catch then release creating a sense of revolution in understanding the slippery connection at hand.
I’m full of gratitude to jo reyes-boitel for such a pivotal poem and thrilled to share this with you today.
Thank you for being with us for Poets on the Plains. I’m Allison Adelle Hedge Coke sending you some sweet memories through a delicate and delicious poem, all spelled out in “fish bones.”
POETS ON THE PLAINS HOST
Allison Adelle Hedge Coke was born in Amarillo, lived/worked in seven High Plains states, and four more Great Plains states and provinces. She lives and works in California, came of age in North Carolina, and has also lived/worked in Hawai‘i, New Mexico, Michigan, New York, Tennessee and Georgia. She’s authored and edited 18 books including Look at This Blue: an assemblage poem and Burn (written at Marfa during the 2011 fires). Acknowledgements include the Thomas Wolfe Prize & Lecture, California Legacy Artist, the George Garrett Award, Fulbright Scholar, the First Jade Nurtured Sihui Female International Foreign Poetry Award, a U.S. Library of Congress Witter Bynner fellowship, and is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters. She teaches for the University of California Riverside. Books: https://hedgecoke.com
FEATURED POET
jo reyes-boitel is a queer, mixed Latinx poet, playwright, and scholar, currently working on their Ph.D. in Literature at Texas Tech University. They gained an MFA at the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley where she taught undergraduate creative writing courses. jo’s work centers on decoloniality and the role of longing and mourning in reclaiming cultural inheritance and identity. Their publications include Michael + Josephine (FlowerSong Press, 2019), the
chapbook mouth (Neon Hemlock, 2021), and her newest work, the matchstick litanies (Next Page Press, 2023). jo has also written and produced “she wears bells”, a hybrid opera, which was a finalist in Guerilla Opera’s 2021 virtual festival. jo is a fellow of Macondo and VoNA/Voices of Our Nations. https://www.joreyesboitel.com/ jo.Reyes@ttu.edu jrboitel@yahoo.com
