at fault
by R.C. deWinter
Untitled (Chispitas), 15”x12”, (framed), acrylic and gouache on paper, 2021, Andrea Muñoz Martinez,
when i fall plummeting sure as an arrow into the deep waters of love it doesn’t matter that it's black as the pit my eyes are faulty but my heart is sure
yet navigating by the heart is a tricky business akin to being a privateer marauding the open ocean for a prize
there is none warranted to issue an act of grace hence we with no protection are held accountable for all we do
and in the court of love judgment albeit made by arbiters with scant and often flawed illumination is not only swift but final
no point in reappearing in the ragged threadbare cloak of the appellant no point in moving for mistrial for once the sentence is pronounced it is immutable and graven in the record for all time
*RC deWinter’s poetry is widely anthologized, notably in* Uno: A Poetry Anthology (Xlibris, April 2002), New York City Haiku (Universe/NY Times, 2/2017), Coffin Bell Two (Coffin Bell, March 2020) Winter Anthology: Healing Felines and Femmes, (Other Worldly Women Press, 12/2020), Now We Heal: An Anthology of Hope, (Wellworth Publishing, 12/2020) in print: in 2River, Adelaide, Door Is A Jar, Event, Gargoyle Magazine, Genre Urban Arts, Meat For Tea: The Valley Review, the minnesota review, Night Picnic Journal, Prairie Schooner, San Antonio Review, Southword, York Literary Review among others and appears in numerous online literary journals.
*Andrea Muñoz Martínez is a visual and performance artist currently living and working in Austin, Texas. She has an MFA from UC Davis and a BFA from The University of Texas at Austin. Her work can be found in private collections around the United States and has been exhibited at ICOSA Collective, Artspace111 and at Camiba Art. Martínez paints a colorful, vibrant imaginary space she calls Borderlandia. Her works include series on dogs, targets, roaches, chispas and caras malas. Martínez grew up in the borderlands of South Texas and her paintings and performance art take the border and boundaries as their subject. Her painting exhibition, “Dogs Heal in Borderlandia,” can be viewed online and at Link & Pin Artspace in Austin. Her paintings are available for purchase at xoxoam*