Vice-Royal-Ties

The title of Bi-rey-nato (Vice-royal-ties), Julia Wong Kcomt’s sixth poetry collection, is a homonym for 'virreinato' or 'viceroyalty', but can also be broken down into its component words: 'bi' (bi/two), 'rey' (king), and 'nato' (born). Likewise, the poems in this chapbook play with binaries: in power, love, language, country, identity. The salt in the air of seaside Lima, the setting of the first section, condenses into the salt that trails through the second section, set mostly in Argentina.