selected for publication by Chet’la Sebree
Servants of God
after La Última Cena, Marcos Zapata, c. 1753
In the Last Supper painting that hangs at Cusco Cathedral
eleven apostles and Christ flank the centerpiece a roasted guinea pig
A bath of light overflows behind Christ’s head In-between
two candelabra a window encases the first-quarter moon amongst
star stampede Cusco is the city closest to heaven desire and fear
meet at its peaks I compared salvation to satiating hunger
by consuming crispened flesh My mother’s aunt roasted me a guinea pig
before I migrated Para ti sobrino she said The most Peruvian parting gift
a last supper Whereas my final dinner before travel was with my father’s face
covered by a newspaper
My first thought within the Cathedral as I paced before the painting
Zapata stroked a fable filled with Peruvian offerings papas lucuma y
choclo require limited use of blues and greens A challenge to himself
is the red foundation on the canvas the blood of Christ soon be spilled
On the table Inca gold transmuted to eucharist chalice and various cups
Some apostles chew coca leaf to remind you of height
At the forefront cloudy fermented corn chicha stands tall in two jugs
I have never been served chicha as the blood of Christ
To evangelize the Escuela Cusqueña painted Peruvian effects
onto iconic biblical moments that traveled far to all corners of South America
To captivate the viewer the table slants upward uplifted to god
as the lace tablecloths’ rough folds ripple aligned to the scaffold’s floorboards
To cause discomfort a painting within the painting depicts the crucifixion
Jesus and eleven of his apostles are brushed with pearl white skin in sets of two
I became fixated on the apostle brushed in ochre tan and brown
The historical Spanish obsession with purity of blood is captured within the masterpiece
Judas glares at the viewer his eyes defiantly shout it was me
his dark skin past mestizo is meant to be a lesser measure of the man who sold Christ
As if la casta limits pureness of heart Judas holds the bag of coins tight
in a hand as dark as mine Earth tone sinner miles above the clouds
How easily humans meld into monolith & the past renders us canvassed caged stags
its ruins reassembled every time my father instructed my brother & I
the worth of our flesh Hatred timeless every time he pronounced
Nosotros somos más We are better than them
A phrase he repeated when speaking of the people I love more than him
Alonso Llerena is a Peruvian writer, translator, and educator. He has earned an MFA from Bard: Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts. His current work explores the interconnection between the poetics of exile and the poetics of the remains. His work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Offing, FENCE, Cream City Review, and elsewhere. His manuscript in progress, La Casa Roja was a finalist for The National Poetry Series 2023, 2022 and 2021, The Omnidawn 2023 1st/2nd book prize, the Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Prize for poetry, the YesYes Books open reading series, and a semi-finalist for the Felix Pollack Prizes and the 2023 Noemi Press Poetry contest.
Guest Judge: Chet’la Sebree is an Assistant Professor of English at George Washington University. She is the author of Field Study (FSG Originals, June 2021), winner of the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American, and Mistress, selected by Cathy Park Hong as the winner of the 2018 New Issues Poetry Prize and nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work-Poetry (2020).
