The Best American Fantasy and online in
The Paris Review. She has been a finalist for the Puschart Prize and a Fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference.
Ramona is a faculty member of the Low-Residency MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts and Visiting Professor at Colorado College.
Raquel Salas Rivera (Mayagüez, 1985) is a Puerto Rican poet, translator, and editor. His honors include being named the 2018-19 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia and receiving the New Voices Award from Puerto Rico’s Festival de la Palabra. He is the author of five full-length poetry books. His third book,
Essay: Want police reform? Put yourself in a cop s boots.
Sarah Cortez
FacebookTwitterEmail
1of3
Sarah Cortez is a part-time cop and poet/writer.Eric Kayne, Eric Kayne / For the ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
2of3
3of3
The dull, hard sheen of summer’s afternoon sun on the roadway hurts my eyes, even through metallic aviators. My next call for service spreads the ache from my tired eyes through my skull. Even the blood pumping through my brain begins to hurt. Squinting doesn’t help.
Family violence always increases a headache because this type of call is so stressful, so unpredictable. On top of the decades-long march of annual statistics that all cops know the probability of getting killed or injured on a family violence call is high it’s the complexity of human dynamics that makes these calls so difficult. It’s not just the swirling desperation that runs at a fever pitch, but the bitter residuals after years of manipulation, frustration and anguish. Stir these toget