11 May Taking Dictation by Brandel France de Bravo
of vodka and birthday mash note. You’re one of my five
real friends. Just as a poet always writes for other poets,
an authoritarian is only authentic with their own kind.
“Expropriate that!” I shout like Chavez as I walk the streets
checking for my portrait in every government office.
I’m Bokassa sans crocodiles, a Mobutu who lacks branding:
The all-powerful warrior who because of his endurance
and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest,
leaving fire in his wake. Last night, I dreamed I woke up
to tiny dusty footprints marching across my bedroom floor:
hard-soled shoes with pointy toes. Auguring? I’m not sure.
I’m Ceaușescu without the scepter or bronze yak from Mao,
running a police state the size of Candyland. Being feared
is often confused with being loved. If only I could dictate that.
Make me magnetic, let me thrill to being groped, grabbed
from an oversized suit pocket, stripped of my envelope, pawed
for all to see. Pull comes with push, you say? I’ll take that.
I’m Kim Jong-un’s letter with nothing but memories on my back.
Even in exile, I’m a star. I can do anything. Watch me burn down
this gulag they call archives. Hot blue, red giant, white dwarf.
About the Poet
Brandel France de Bravo is a poet, essayist, editor, translator, compassion meditation instructor, and public health advocate who has been working on healthcare issues internationally and in the U.S. for nearly 30 years. She holds a Master’s in Public Health from Columbia University and a Master’s in Fine Arts in creative writing from Warren Wilson College.
She is the author of the poetry collections Locomotive Cathedral (University of Nebraska Press, 2025), Provenance (Washington Writer’s House, 2008), and the chapbook Mother, Loose (Accents Publishing, 2015). Brandel is the editor of the bilingual anthology Mexican Poetry Today: 20/20 Voices.
Her poems and essays have appeared in Best American Poetry 2024, Alaska Quarterly Review, the Cincinnati Review, Copper Nickel, The Georgia Review, Gulf Coast, Poet Lore, the Seneca Review, Diode, Salamander, Southern Humanities Review, Green Mountains Review and elsewhere. Brandel teaches a meditation program she developed at Stanford University called Compassion Cultivation Training.
She has served on the Board of PEN Mexico for three years and currently serves on the Board of the National Center for Health Research. Brandel has received artist fellowships from the Hermitage Artist Retreat, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), and the Washington, D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
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Related Event
- Brandel France de Bravo will read poems from her new collection Locomotive Cathedral at 7 p.m. May 17th at Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen Street in Buffalo in a program organized by Buffalo businessman and International House operator Mark Supples. The program will also feature live music. Admission is free.
The Poem of the Week feature is curated by literary legacy awardee R.D. Pohl.