To honor everyone’s interpretation of love, our staff members selected one of their favorite love poems by a Latine author and wrote an inspired poem of their own in response. 

Albeit a bit late, the Pueblo staff decided to get together to celebrate love a little differently this year. To honor everyone’s interpretation of love, our staff members selected one of their favorite love poems by a Latine author and wrote an inspired poem of their own in response. 

Love has no time constraints, so here are our love poems.

Emily Figueroa, Creative Editor at Pueblo

An Overlooked World

When it comes to you, my love is everlasting.

I’ve filled a world with my heart and soul for us.  

The wait feels like a million days are passing,

and I long for you to join me in this lust. 

What good is love with only one person involved?

I’ve enjoyed the chase, but you’ve left me lost in my steps. 

My heart is disoriented and tangled: how could you make me feel so small?

You’ve made me familiar with the feeling of doubt from being unkempt. 

When it came to you, our end was never in sight.

I lived our fantasy that you never cared to explore.

My world full of passion was happier without your presence dimming my light.

Now I’ve been left realizing that you could’ve done more.

What good was my love if it never fit you?

Your heart could never accept my trust and admiration.

Everyday is now focused on me; it’s fresh and new.

My world is much happier without you and your meaningless validation. 

Lauren Fernandez, News Editor of Pueblo

As Ada Limon wrote in her poem, “Apologies For My Appearance”, “sometimes I think you get the worst of me…” Not only this, but iconically, “I move in this house with you the way I move in my mind, unencumbered by beauty’s cage.” 

This. This is what love is. For our Valentine’s Day edition, here is what love looks like to me. 

The Antithesis Of the Male Gaze (The Antidote, Even) 

I move in our tiny apartment most days, slouched over – slovenly. Yet I feel your gaze tracking me like a bird of prey. 

Unwavering. Fierce. Ready to pounce. 

I, on the other hand, 

manage to meander about 

sticking out (or is it truly fitting in) 

from the male gaze. 

Released from its shackles

I wear ill-fitting t-shirts, 

tear-stained cheeks, 

and coffee on my breath.

All things part of a recipe for disaster

on a first date. 

This is our 1,460th.  

Yet there you are

with those bright green eyes. 

Unphased by what I am in front of you. 

Encouraging even. 

Wanting more of this

half a person. Or, 

as I’d jokingly refer to myself, 

a Gremlin.

I can’t tell you I’m proud

of every moment,

but I can tell you that I no longer notice them.

For rather, love is full of 

disheveled nights, 

mornings, 

and is merely sprinkled

with occasional put-togetherness. 

But in love, I am enough. 

There is no act nor performance. 

There are only your eyes. 

Richie Requena, Pueblo Managing Editor

An Interpretation of “Oranges” by Gary Soto

The first time we hung out outside of the library

I thought you were busy

The busted AC made the room hot

And your fingers typed fast

And I stared at my computer

Both pretending we weren’t 

Thinking about each other.

Too much time passed

I blew it perhaps

But I thought you didn’t need to go downtown alone

So I point out my car

No not that one

I drive a Chevy with roll up windows

A family inheritance

So a family jewel all the same

I fish out my keys and

Hope my GPS lets us go down

Lake Shore Drive

Header illustration by Magda Wilhelm