Yanaguana volume 1, issue 2 spring/summer 2026 a literary journal from San Antonio, Texas
Robert René Galván
“where is that farthest star ...”
“this cosmic tide,
Its ebb and flow”
“ ... adore his presence
on our cold faces”
Sol
The mid-day dove—
a lament for a dying star.
My face absorbs the force
That binds the spheres in flight.
Our dreams of minerals and light
Are born only in its throes,
Rise from the heat like whirlwinds
In the sand, then vanish.
And where is that farthest star.
Its dim fire flung across time,
Its radiance long spent?
Chibil Kin
(Biting of the Sun)
When the pock-marked goddess
Embraces the sun,
The lovers are devoured
By a dark serpent;
Kings and priests raised towers
To be near him,
Offered pulsing souls
To quench his thirst,
Restore the world.
The multitudes below
Expose their delicate vessels,
Risk blindness,
For a glimpse of hope.
The star-gazers knew
Of this cosmic tide,
Its ebb and flow
Toward the end of time,
Yet they still probe
The captive’s breast
With a flint blade
For an answer;
Chacmool’s coffer overflows,
The steps are stained red as coral,
Until the cloud-serpent
Rises from the pyre of hearts
To fill the moon with blood.
The obsidian sky abates
And the ruler nods knowingly
To the celebrant.
Still atop his mound of stones,
He gazes down at the cheering rabble,
And all is well.
(Drawing by the author after the
Dresden Codex)
Equinox
The old god skirts
across the meridian,
stays time on a razor’s edge,
a fulcrum between night
and day.
Great stones were placed
in his path to plot his return:
Once a source of wonder,
now subject to measurement
and analysis,
inanimate and mortal—
We know that he will perish
long after our meager breath expires,
and though un-deified and known,
we still adore his presence
on our cold faces.
Robert René Galván, born in San Antonio of Indigenous/Mexican heritage, resides in New York City where he works as a professional musician and poet. His collections of poems are Meteors, published by Lux Nova Press and Undesirable: Race and Remembrance, Somos en Escrito Foundation Press, Standing Stones, Finishing Line Press and The Shadow of Time, Adelaide Books. His poetry has been featured in such publications as The Acentos Review, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Azahares Literary Magazine, Gyroscope, Hawaii Review, Hispanic Culture Review, Latino Book Review, Newtown Review, Panoply, Prachya Review, Sequestrum, Shoreline of Infinity, Somos en Escrito, Stillwater Review, West Texas Literary Review, and UU World. He is a Shortlist Winner Nominee in the 2018 Adelaide Literary Award for Best Poem. Recently, his poems are featured in Puro ChicanX Writers of the 21st Century (2nd Edition) and in Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art, and Thought. His poems have been nominated for Best of Web and the Pushcart Prize. His poem, “Awakening,” was featured in the author’s voice on NPR as part of National Poetry Month in the Spring of 2021. His book Vaqueros and other Poems (manuscript) was a finalist in the Poetic Justice Institute Editor’s Prize in 2025.
Singing Waters
The Singing Waters section of Yanaguana is dedicated to the work of ChicanX and Indigenous authors who self-identify. The art, poetry, and writing of these artists and writers can be the first touchstone to navigating a world in which we find ourselves, as Gloria Anzaldúa names us, nepantleras.