Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper

As we continue our tour you will notice on the right is Martin Espada’s poem “Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper.” In this poem, Espada tells a story of someone who developed a good work ethic in high school, working after school until 9 PM manufacturing legal pads. Espada says they worked “till both palms burned at punch clock.” He also says that the character in the story would “gather slits thinner than the crevices of the skin, hidden” which tells us that they were motivated to get their job done and done correctly no matter what happened. Espada then lets us know that the characters hard work paid off because they are now in law school. He says “ten years later, in law school, I knew that every legal pad was glued with the sting of hidden cuts, that every open law book was a pair of hands upturned and burning” to tell us that the character will never forget the hard work and determination it took to get to where they are.