Baritone
Papá named me after a zarzuela—
a romantic lyrical drama
in three acts. A comedy of errors
where nobody dies.
Madrid 1868, the start of a war.
In the end, Luisa Fernanda,
freed from her engagement
to the baritone Vidal, gets
her love, a newly promoted
coronel—the tenor Javier.
My fourth-grade teacher,
Mrs. Barratta, taught me about opera.
How the coy women’s words
formed a verbal ribbon dance.
The velvet, the brocade, the lights.
Betrayals, mistaken identities.
Poor Rigoletto, another baritone.
In the end his daughter sacrifices her life.
Saturday mornings papá blasted opera
or classical music from our living room.
Evenings, he showed up with friends,
for Johny Walker, aguardiente,
guitars, dancing. From my bedroom,
I struggled to drown out
their carousals with my pillow, imagined
mamá’s stiffened silence.
It took me years to appreciate papá’s
classically-trained baritone voice
that could reach a tenor’s range.
I only heard rage.
a romantic lyrical drama
in three acts. A comedy of errors
where nobody dies.
Madrid 1868, the start of a war.
In the end, Luisa Fernanda,
freed from her engagement
to the baritone Vidal, gets
her love, a newly promoted
coronel—the tenor Javier.
My fourth-grade teacher,
Mrs. Barratta, taught me about opera.
How the coy women’s words
formed a verbal ribbon dance.
The velvet, the brocade, the lights.
Betrayals, mistaken identities.
Poor Rigoletto, another baritone.
In the end his daughter sacrifices her life.
Saturday mornings papá blasted opera
or classical music from our living room.
Evenings, he showed up with friends,
for Johny Walker, aguardiente,
guitars, dancing. From my bedroom,
I struggled to drown out
their carousals with my pillow, imagined
mamá’s stiffened silence.
It took me years to appreciate papá’s
classically-trained baritone voice
that could reach a tenor’s range.
I only heard rage.
Fall 2026
Luisa Caycedo-Kimura is a Colombian-born writer, translator, educator, and the author of All
Were Limones (The Word Works, 2025), winner of the Hillary Tham Capital Collection
competition. Other honors include a John K. Walsh Residency Fellowship at the Anderson
Center, an Adrienne Reiner Hochstadt Fellowship at Ragdale, a Robert Pinsky Global
Fellowship in Poetry, and a Connecticut Office of the Arts Emerging Recognition Award. A
multiple Pushcart Prize nominee and Best of the Net nominee, her work appears in numerous
journals and anthologies, including, Four Way Review, Denver Quarterly, The Cincinnati
Review, Shenandoah, Rattle, Mid-American Review, RHINO and elsewhere.
Were Limones (The Word Works, 2025), winner of the Hillary Tham Capital Collection
competition. Other honors include a John K. Walsh Residency Fellowship at the Anderson
Center, an Adrienne Reiner Hochstadt Fellowship at Ragdale, a Robert Pinsky Global
Fellowship in Poetry, and a Connecticut Office of the Arts Emerging Recognition Award. A
multiple Pushcart Prize nominee and Best of the Net nominee, her work appears in numerous
journals and anthologies, including, Four Way Review, Denver Quarterly, The Cincinnati
Review, Shenandoah, Rattle, Mid-American Review, RHINO and elsewhere.
Art: L. I. Henley
“Scorpio Girl: After Rebecca Hart Olander's Singing from the Deep End,” 2026
Colored pencil, acrylic, notebook paper, found The Jesus and Mary Chain album art
“Scorpio Girl: After Rebecca Hart Olander's Singing from the Deep End,” 2026
Colored pencil, acrylic, notebook paper, found The Jesus and Mary Chain album art