We Seek Asylum

by Henry Mahoski

Overview

Using his beloved pastime of baseball as an allegory, poet Gustavo Adolfo Aybar debuts a tour de force meditation on the battle for the soul of the Dominican Republic.

Alabanza...and one said with a Spanish tongue:

let me play; we have no field here.

And the other said with an African tongue,

I will let you play. Baseball is all we have.

--from We Seek Asylum

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780999223222
Publisher:	Aquarius Press
Publication date:	09/29/2017
Series:	Willow Books Grand Prize
Pages:	78
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Gustavo Adolfo Aybar holds an M.A. in Romance Languages & Literature and is a Cave Canem and Artist Inc. Fellow. His work can be found in Primera Pagina: Poetry from the Latino Heartland. Aybar also translated work by Mexican author/playwright Glafira Rocha, which appears in Asymptote, EZRA, InTranslation and elsewhere.

Table of Contents

Prologue 6

Remembering the Dead 7

Corpse Disposal 11

Baseball’s Traveling Men 12

Corvus 14

Early Dominicanization Campaigns 15 What the Yankis Left Us 16

The Rise of a Dictator 17 Negro Leagues Béisbol: A Shared Legacy 20

Baseball as Propaganda or The Reelection Campaign of President 21

Trujillo; ¨Long Live the Benefactor of Our Fatherland.¨

At the Stadium 22

The Ace Pitcher 23

Homerun Plate a la Joshua 25

Satchel´s Merengue Lessons and Other Shenanigans 26 Black Magic 27

Pregame Ritual from a Dominican Jail 28

An Epic Standoff 29

After a Triumphant Series 30

Leroy “Satchel” Paige: Baseball Player 31

II.

Dim·i·nu·tion 35

Coffin Birth 40

Conversation About the Pitfalls of the Trujillo Regime, Circa 1937 42 Morir Soñando 43

The Only Thing I Have 44

Sténio Vincent’s Expected Response to the Parsley Massacre, 45

Circa 1938

God and Trujillo 46

The Psychology of Torture 47

Michel Martelly’s Expected Response to the Dominican Republic’s 48

New Migrant Rules, or How to Create a Butterfly Garden

Opposing the Regime 49

We Seek Asylum 50

III.

1957 Sky-Blue Chevy Packard, or The Assassination of a Dictator 55

Law 5880 But He Kept Law and Order 60

Lifting the Veil 62

Tia Licha’s House 63

Fetching Water 64

A Recipe Story 65

Baseball/Worship 66

Or Simply, Just Rice 67

The Perfect Game 68

And He Will Play Baseball 69

For You, For Asking Me Why I Love Baseball So Much 70

Epilogue 71

Stealing Home 72

Notes 73

About the Poet 76

Editorial Reviews

"

From the Publisher