Edition of 5, 2021
Natural Selection is part of Blue Prints, a closed collection of five poems that subtly responds to the concept of a “roadmap” vis à vis the creative process. Rather than asking where art may lead, Caballero invites readers to consider where art comes from by sharing her own poetic practice.
The media-rich poems in Caballero’s Blue Prints collection are linked graphically but also thematically. Each poem approaches the question of what drives literary creation from a different perspective, but, in all, inevitability is palpable.
For Caballero, writing is not a matter of choice or of destination–instead, writing is her blueprint, at once the origin, essence and design.
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Natural Selection
Bodies approach the counter in pairs,
request coffee, tea and, since it’s Saturday,
swirled pastries.
My children are tucked in courses I raked
the internet to find.
My husband is traveling.
I’ve a friend out there, maybe three,
but none are with me.
It’s March in a Florida
packed with Northerners:
people act happy.
I could be with my kids,
certainly.
Be within life,
instead of outside it,
pouring another morning
into the old question—
would my days be better
if I didn’t write?
