The Contract Says: We’d Like the Conversation to Be Bilingual

“The Contract Says: We’d Like the Conversation to be Bilingual,” is a 27-line, free verse poem, meaning that there are no consistent patterns of rhyme, rhythm, or meter throughout the entirety of the piece. The poem contains 14 stanzas, or groupings of lines. Every stanza, excluding the final stanza (Stanza 14), is two lines long. These two-line stanzas create the visual structure of the poem, but more than that, they also allow Limón to organize her ideas. Each time a new line of thinking is introduced into the poem, Limón creates a new stanza. The free-flowing nature of the verse allows Limón to move from idea to new idea with relative ease. This constant movement also acts as a way to inundate readers with the same questions and stipulations being asked of and placed on the author signing the contract with a big publishing house. The constant breaks between the brief stanzas force readers to sit with each new racial stereotype and invasive question being introduced into the poem, allowing them the time to evaluate the problematic nature of what is being said.