I was lifting weights at the gym when suddenly I was surrounded by a crew of Jaguar Knights from the 15th Century. We left the gym right away and headed to the southern jungles. I was told I would eventually have to wrestle a jaguar for my right to live. They all laughed. It was a harmless joke. I immediately trained in the art of weaponry which resembled a ballet with sharp swords. I hardened the nerves in my legs to feel as little pain as possible. All the exercises and training took place at midnight beneath the jaguar moon. When the war of the flowers eventually came, I charged the enemy without fear. I became immortal.
Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He is the author of The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020). His work appears in The American Poetry Review, Boulevard, Crazyhorse, Georgia Review, Huizache, Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, Poetry, The Southern Review, Witness Magazine, The Yale Review, and in The Best American Nonrequired Reading Anthology 2011. He teaches creative writing online and edits for Frontier Poetry.
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Kissing Nature
Rahma O. Jimoh is a Nigerian writer and photog. She is a lover of sunsets and monuments and has been published or has works forthcoming in Tab Journal, Lucent Dreaming, Agbowo & others. She is an editor at Olumo Review. Pronouns: She/Her Twitter: @dynamicrahma