Sunday - September 20, 2020 - From our poetry archives: Julia Knobloch - “Dispatch from Buenos Aires: Sur/South” - Issue No. 6 - Winter 2018-19.

Julia Knobloch’s poem, “Dispatch from Buenos Aires: Sur/South” is one of several dispatch poems –––– short and quick poetic letters, some more urgent than others, which are included within her first full-length collection, Do Not Return (Broadstone Books 2019). We like the wind that moves across and through this poem, picking up and carrying more energy and steam as the piece sprints toward its final few lines.

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Barracas. Santa María de los Buenos Ayres, the winds are not fair! They hiss and creep around your blocks and squares, blow dirt into your apartments, tear your hair, lift your skirt, unveil, expose you! Posters clatter in the cold sun of May, splendor of the southern hemisphere. Don’t trust a place where north is west and the moon has no face. The winds, the airline, the light, the pizza, the meat — austral! The currency — austral, sailing, swirling, scintillating at demonstrations, pickets, sit-ins, Argentina, Argentina! Freedom, freedom! Scream, Santa María de los Buenos Ayres, on Brandsen, on San Juan, scream — against these southern winds, against this vermouth frenzy, at the buzzer, scream! On Belgrano, scream, on Rivadavia, on Entre Ríos, scream, the intercom may be broken! Hello, hello, it’s me, Mary, it’s me! The holy trinity has long cashed in! It’s May Day! May Day! It’s every man now for himself!