• Purchase
Witness Magazine
  • Issues
    • Current Issue
    • Archive
      • Past Issues
      • Fiction
      • Nonfiction
      • Poetry
      • Photography
  • About
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
  • Order/Subscribe
  • Submit
  • Search

Mrs. Nixon’s Third Grade by Ismael “Izzy” Santillanes

November 20, 2021 at 12:06 pm

The wooden ruler with the brass edge is treason upon his brown arm and not until a week after you’d used it on the back of my hand did I hear the air hiss rip through to weal the skin of my childhood friend as Mexican hieroglyphs pulverized against the back of my teeth cringed at such a fantastic and frightful display from a being not our own tall white hair creature with thin lips flowered dress waist pulled in by a thick belt it was Cortez all over again but like I had done he also recognized el conquistador bled like any other human being and kicked your shin where I had left it scabbed and ran and ran into the desert like a wild flightless quetzal and as you bent to stop the poison from seeping out pleased I walked out myself to join in the desert nest of your victims.

 

 

Ismael “Izzy” Santillanes is currently enrolled in a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Antioch University Los Angeles. He believes in the process of writing what one knows exactly as exists in the body as a means to self-knowledge. Having lived in deserts most of his life, he engages the page with a xeric mindset, making every drop of ink a necessity.

 

« Previous post

Queer Seoul by Mee Ok Icaro

Next post »

Goodbye to Mr. Wonderfull by Robert Brian Mulder
Back to News

Mailing List

Sign up for the Witness email newsletter.



Order & Subscribe

Subscribe to Witness magazine or order individual issues.

Purchase

Submit Your Work

Entries accepted in the fall for the print issue. Check for online issue dates in the link below.

Learn More

© 2006-2020 Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy

  • The Black Mountain Institute
  • UNLV
  • Submit
  • Subscribe
  • Order Issues
  • Contact Us