Jalisco.

I was asked to illustrate two poems for Commas & Colons magazine, to be included in their latest edition celebrating short poetry and prose. Both poems were written by Konnor Thorpe, who uses a rhythmic, well-formatted style that I enjoyed responding to. For the first, Jailisco, I drew this little ramshackle taqueria and visiting scorpion under the hot sun.

jalisco

car bombing last week

but the old men still haggle over trinkets

with the gringos in the market

and the young men still exchange fire

in the dust and the cobblestone

leave a van full of heads

and another full of bodies

somewhere out in the desert

scorpion crawls by

translucent in november sun

too small to hiss or sting

or say anything at all

lost again

under the shadow of

a roadside

taqueria

- words by Konnor Thorpe.

You can see my illustration alongside other responses to Konnor's work here.