Baubles From Bones
  • Home
  • Read
    • Latest issue
    • Archive
  • Submission Guidelines
  • About
    • Contact
    • Notes and updates
  • Support Us
    • The Boneyard
  • Home
  • Read
    • Latest issue
    • Archive
  • Submission Guidelines
  • About
    • Contact
    • Notes and updates
  • Support Us
    • The Boneyard
BFB:3 cover art by Lucas Kurz
Baubles From Bones: Issue 3
​Available for purchase:
Physically
Digitally
Subscribe to Patreon

Paperwork

Angela Acosta

1. Original

Lamento decirle que

estoy harta del papeleo,

hay tanto jaleo,

y no me importa un bledo

si quieres reconocer del difunto

aquello que no pudo tener en la vida.


I regret to inform you

that I am tired of all this paperwork,

it’s too much hassle

and I don’t give a damn

if you want to recognize of the deceased

that which he could not have in life.


Rellenamos formularios, firmándolos

entre lágrimas de decisiones imposibles:

¿con quién se quedan las fotos y la guitarra

si nos vamos todos a vivir a Martes,

la nueva frontera que usted nos ha impuesto?


We fill out forms, signing them

between tears of impossible decisions:

Who will keep the photos and the guitar

if we are all going to Mars,

the new border that you have imposed?


2. Carbon Copy


Mi bisabuela sacrificó su patria,

haciendo trueque de su propia lengua materna,

we became Americans here…

translating for my great grandmother who sacrificed

her homeland, bartering away her own mother tongue.

Her children lost their culture


while her great grandchildren screamed to life

in Spanish, una aleluya de lloros.


Mis sobrinos nietos rellenan más formularios,

so many forms for my grand nieces and nephews

whose names were shorted to a twenty-letter limit.

They sojourn on past the Oort cloud,

trading their homelands, names, and languages too,

and when they die let us hold a wake for all the life

we shared in pictures, stories, and dinner plates.

BFB:3 cover art by Lucas Kurz
Baubles From Bones: Issue 3
​Available for purchase:
Physically
Digitally
Subscribe to Patreon

Angela Acosta

Angela Acosta, Ph.D. (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of South Carolina. Her Rhysling and Best of the Net nominated poetry has appeared in Copihue Poetry, The Acentos Review, Shoreline of Infinity, and Radon Journal. She is author of Summoning Space Travelers (Hiraeth Publishing, 2022), A Belief in Cosmic Dailiness (Red Ogre Review, 2023), and Fourth Generation Chicana Unicorn (Dancing Girl Press, 2024).

Support us!
it's our logo.png
Support Us!
Contact us!
HOME    LATEST ISSUE    ABOUT   
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES 
Baubles From Bones © 2025