November 2023

 Welcome to Talon Review’s November 2023 edition of The Catch newsletter! This month’s feature is a poem by Isa Barrientos, selected by Julia Croston, and a Storyteller Feature of Roderick “Odd?Rod” Borisade by Hannah Frison.

Over to the coast you carried God in your gut. I witnessed
Venus above as the empress, the essence of spring.
I saw a flower bloom and I saw you. Bright eyes, dark demeanor,

perpetual smirk on the pearl of your skin. Born of June, Gemini,
a fragile stone’s particular pressure, from simultaneous mouth-womb,
plucked from ocean’s depth and placed upon a landscape of excess

nothing. Your back is bruised now from concrete in parking lots,
unseen in the shadow of your immaculate shape. I sat left
of your chest and pressed to hear an eager voice

muddled with despair over a cold metallic form, seeing red.
Warm breath for what was left of winter, you sang a hundred
songs. I hummed along, the Pleiadean sky pixelating into cruel

mark of machine. For years in trips of terror, I searched for you.
I found a 2017 Forester 25i Limited CVT in crystal white,
fishbowl windows, fabric seats, crawling too fast on the interstate

that never ends and doesn’t go where I need to be. Past the billboard
kitsch over an engine’s buzz, her front right tire is giving me trouble again
and those six stars are blasphemous and oversold and dead.

About the Poet

Isa Barrientos is a Colombian-born, Florida-raised poet. Her work speaks on earth changes and spiritual liberation. She studies communication, creative writing, and art history at the University of North Florida.

Roderick “Odd?Rod” Borisade

By Hannah Frison (The Catch co-editor)

Roderick “Odd?Rod” Borisade has been a spoken word artist or “storyteller” since 2011. He has toured many colleges and has shared his talent at the TEDxJacksonville and the TEDxTucaloosa conference. Odd?Rod has also been awarded APCA Spokenword Artist Of The Year in 2014, 2016, and 2018.

Odd?Rod’s spoken word STAY is a suicide prevention poem that discusses his personal experience with suicide, depression, and how much these things have impacted his life. He explains that he was influenced into suicidal tendencies by the passing of his late brother, his mother’s drug addiction, and his father’s absence. Accompanied by music and a short film, the spoken word comes to life and flows rhythmically. One line I found to be prevalent says: “I often fantasize my funeral, the sound of disbelief, cars with flashing hazard lights parading through the streets.” This part of the poem is very eye-opening and introspective as it provides unsettling yet vivid insight into what a suicidal person may think about on a day-to-day basis. When I listened to the spoken word, it was at this moment that I stopped sympathizing and started empathizing with Odd?Rod’s message. Another line I enjoyed is: “There’s no anecdote to suicide besides you loving you.” The anecdote Odd?Rod proposes is simultaneously simple and complex because loving oneself is not a singular action, but a process that lasts a lifetime.

Accompanied by dramatic music and visual representation, the spoken word comes to life, flowing rhythmically and intensely. Listen, enjoy, and share with anyone you feel needs to be encouraged.