In the spring 2025 issue of Jasper Magazine the authors and bio-notes for our selected poems were transposed. The poem Children of the Sun, though attributed to Li Hubbard, was actually written by Ivan Segura, and the poem Do Not Tell Me to Flee, though attributed to Ivan Segura, was actually written by Li Hubbard.
Both poems are printed and correctly identified below and will also appear in the fall 2025 issue of Jasper Magazine with the correct attributions. The Jasper Project sincerely apologizes to both poets for this error.
Do Not Tell Me To Flee
by Li Hubbard
This experiment in necrophilia
we call the South
is my home
Here I have debts to pay
trans people to love
fights to lose
ropes to loose
Dialects and state
lines cannot separate my veins
from the delta of blueish blood
The oaks take root in my marrow
the fronds blossom from my pores
the tides stain me red
Borders carved in human skin
a queasy commitment
so easily mistaken for butterflies
Placing my nakedness in the fresh
turned, spit
spotted soil
sinking into the mud
It is the most natural thing
we are so good at dying slow
down here
Li Hubbard is a trans writer, museum guide, and server hailing from Florida. He co-runs Queer Writers of Columbia, a LGBTQ+ collective of creatives building community around craft. Li loves to gab about art and the local coffee scene. Follow him on Instagram: @li.hubbardd | @queerwriterscolumbia
Children of the Sun
by Ivan Segura
They say we don't know
what we want
that we all come from
a faraway land
That we are brown
and speak in tongues
and are in places
we don't belong
We all arrive
for different reasons
We are here to expand
and to become
We come for work
and also love
We are here for fate
or just because
We are the children
of the sun
we roam around
all as one
this ancient land
to all belongs
We move with freedom
stay strong
Are we really a nation of immigrants?
I ponder
Are we not a nation of immigrants?
I wonder
We are the children of the sun
Where we are is where we belong.
Ivan Segura serves as the Director of Multicultural Affairs at the SC Commission for Minority Affairs. He is also the Executive Director of Palmetto Luna Arts, a non-profit organization fostering Latino arts and culture in SC. He has over 20 years of experience in community activism, arts advocacy, and grassroots leadership for Latinos in SC.