Land of Abundant Language
art by JJ Cromer
by Jose Hernandez Diaz
A man in a “Deltron 3030” shirt fell from his skateboard into a graffitied sewer world. The obscure world was in another universe. The name of the obscure planet was called “The Land of Abundant Language.” There were unusual, sentient beings on this planet. They were roughly 8 ft tall, with sleek bodies in the shape of star fish, red orange in color. They spoke a formal English, somehow, and always used ornate language, but not necessarily in a pretentious manner, they just seemed to sincerely enjoy expression and the adequate elaboration of emotion. The man in a “Deltron 3030” shirt felt welcomed in this new sewer planet he’d accidentally discovered. He, too, enjoyed experimenting with language. That is why Deltron 3030 was their favorite rap group.
The man decided to stay and live in this new planet. He built a house out of crisp dictionaries. He slept on a pile of vintage copies of Shakespeare’s sonnets printed from Yale University Press. He competed in weekly language exhibitions with his fellow citizens on the planet of “Abundant Language.” Earth became a distant memory, a distorted concept. Soon, he ran for office in the “Land of Abundant Language.” Exquisite and serene diction were his primary goals for the general populace. Idealism, mutual adoration and aide, ambition, reciprocity. Unfortunately, he lost in a luxurious landslide to an inarticulate, brutish tyrant.
The End.
Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He is the author of The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020) Bad Mexican, Bad American (Acre Books, 2024) The Parachutist (Sundress Publications, 2025) Portrait of the Artist as a Brown Man (Red Hen Press, 2025) and the forthcoming, The Lighthouse Tattoo (Acre Books, 2026). He has taught creative writing at the University of California at Riverside, and at the University of Tennessee where he was the Poet in Residence.
J.J. Cromer and his family live on a small farm in central Appalachia, where they’ve kept bees, geese, ducks, and chickens. Self-taught as an artist, he holds a bachelor's degree in history and two master's degrees — in English and library science. His art is held in the permanent collections of the American Visionary Art Museum, the High Museum of Art, the Taubman Museum of Art, and the American Folk Art Museum, among others.
