Martín EspadaJailbreak of SparrowsAlfred A. Knopf / 2025 / 114 pp / $29 HardbackReviewed by James Long / June 2025 About a third of the way through his new collection, in a poem titled “The Critic’s Tongue Did Not Sparkle with the Diamond Stickpin of Wit,” Martín Espada shares this chilling exchange from a highbrow dinner conversation: Puerto Ricans? You’ve got a drug problem. Here’s how you fix it. Deport the drug dealers. Deport the addicts. Deport anyone who won’t talk to ...
