What People Do, the latest book of poetry by w.r. rodriguez, features a poetic tribute to Daniel Hauben’s monumental painting Bronx Vortex. A small section of the sixteen-foot painting appears on the cover: a view of the Grand Concourse looking south from Fordham Road.

The title poem grew from a childhood memory of hearing gunshots in the night. Like the cat that landed on box three of the skully board, it was a rare occurrence—unlike the routine, haunting, nocturnal clunk of the trip switch that echoed up from the subway station in sleepy darkness.

The Dollar Savings Bank, the Woodlawn train, housing projects, tenements, swamps, sunsets, and butterflies all are part of the cornucopia of life beneath “pale stars on a tarpaper roof” and the “brilliantly shining Brook Avenue sun.”

What People Do

Zeugpress

2026

ISBN: 978-0-9632201-8-9

Perfect bound, 84pp.

https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/wrrodriguez

What People Do