Francisco X. Alarcón Remembers Rane Arroyo

SINGING SHARKS TAKING IN THE NIGHT

by Francisco X. Alarcón 

a personal remembrance

of playwright/poet extraordinaire

Rane Arroyo (Nov. 15, 1954 - May 7, 2010)

whom I first met 

at the AWP Conference 

in New Orleans, March 2002

*

I found out about you crossing

the final border through 

Facebook--a message by Richard Yáñez

as I read you name, Rane Arroyo

I feel the cold water of a border creek

running down the length of my spine

how ironic that you had deactivated

your Facebook page on December 30^th:

“I’m done with Facebook and Twitter”

--you wrote on your last Facebook entry--

“only keeping www.myspacecom/rane 

arroyo. I’ll try to send this message out

again a couple of times—until I’m cut out.

Simplifying things and prefer myspace

over all others. Best, Rane”-- your adieu

I close my lap top and run to the UC Davis 

Conference Center where I will be doing

the keynote for “The Real California Gold:

Conference on Indigenous & Immigrant 

Heritage Languages of California”—as I speak 

I can’t forget that wondrous day we met:

the 2002 AWP Conference in New Orleans

a ground-breaking poetry reading/panel,

“Boca a Boca: Poetry Reading by Gay Latinos”

I had convened to shake up the dust a bit

of this annual writers’ conference;  Rane, 

you were one of five gay Latino bard sharks

taking in the silent air and exhaling flowers;

you, Francisco Aragón, Rigoberto González,

Eduardo C. Corral, and myself did our own 

Gay Latino Floricanto, in xochitl in cuicatl,

yes, our very own flower and song festival;

right there, the pages we were reading from 

were the smooth skins of our male lovers;

the letters of our poems were itched tattoos

that had made us bleed in silence for years

now, we were horses running free through

the aisles and chair rows of this crowded hotel

conference room; and no matter the low ceiling

we were eagles soaring in full flight with wings

spread open like the long table in front of us; 

our poems were smeared with the Seed of Life

we laughed, we cried, we embraced each other;

we recognized the time had finally arrived

to say to each other, without a word, “In Lak’ Ech”

the Maya sacred mantra: “tú eres mi otro yo /

you are me and I am you”- and we rejoiced;

we knew we were blessed when we went out

for a ramshackle dinner in the French Quarter

and all pulled tables together to form a circle

of new friends in brotherhood, sisterhood

I remember, Rane, you and I were the last ones

of the group to go bar hopping through the streets

of pre-Mardi Grass New Orleans; éramos unas locas

we ended up listening to soulful jazz and confessing

to each other our lives; we were two singing sharks

taking in the night, worry-free, flowing in the Big River

hermano, I’m reading your poems con velas encendidas

through the night;  your Puerto Rican voice is flooding 

your native Chicago with ghosts; as I open my e-mail

I find a Facebook message from you, it’s your partner,

Glenn Sheldon; oh, I want to meet the daybreak not alone,

but with you whispering me verses and biting my ears

© Francisco X. Alarcón

May 9, 2010

I want to thank Francisco Aragón for his suggestion that I write a personal remembrance of Rane Arroyo around the day we first met during the AWP Conference that took place in New Orleans in March 2002.

Francisco X. Alarcón, award winning Chicano poet and educator, born in Los Angeles, in 1954, is author of eleven volumes of poetry, including, From the Other Side of Night: Selected and New Poems (University of Arizona Press 2002), and Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation (Chronicle Books 1992).  Together with Rodrigo Reyes and Juan Pablo Gutiérrez, Francisco is co-author of Ya Vas, Carnal (Humanizarte Press, 1985), the first collection of homoerotic poetry published by openly gay Latino male poets in the US. He teaches at the University of California, Davis. He recently opened the digitally hot Facebook page POETS RESPONDING TO SB 1070, and encourages all to post poems, artwork, and comments.