manuelmoncayo

[manuelmoncayo]

Chest Position I 2025

[manuelmoncayo]

Chest Position II 2025

The slow unfolding of another soul across silence. We speak in pulses, in pauses. A relationship built not on presence, but as an homage to the hush of distance.

[manuelmoncayo]

New

2025

[manuelmoncayo]

and renewed.

2025

[manuelmoncayo]

Shoegaze 2025 

– Between Still and Motion – 

[manuelmoncayo]

Su voz 2025

I went into the kitchen to get some agua fresca. That room used to be the TV room when I was a child. As I stepped inside, I felt a presence. She was there—behind me. Aunt Adela. She had followed me because, like me, she was craving a moment alone.

We were visiting her—my parents and I. I hadn’t seen her in a while, though somehow she had followed me through the years, in towns I’d never known before, her scent appearing in a monastery or a garden.

I was overwhelmed with nostalgia, thinking of the many hours I’d spent in that room under her care. But before I could speak, she said, “I remember you here as a child… watching Peanuts.” 

The cups were still the same, along with the bowls, the juice glasses—her trinchador still intact.

“The room smells the same,” I said. “Even though it’s a kitchen now.” She looked at me. “You’ve grown into a decent man. I knew you would. Even when you were a child.”

[manuelmoncayo]

Sus flores, su humor, sus abrazos 2025

Mi tía Adela, sus flores, su humor, sus abrazos. 

[manuelmoncayo]

You treated me nicely 2025 

– Between Still and Motion – 2025

[manuelmoncayo]

Bloom

As season ends, so does the program of family values.

I am truly mine. Their fears, their ways— all gone.

With the wind, their shortfall ends. In celebration, a bloom of new values.

This afternoon, a meditation: the lake reveals my own reflection. 2025

[manuelmoncayo]

Exuberantly Unknown An avenue of flowers, revered and repetitive, the seasonal hue. Familiar love.

The bloom we come to know, stronger every time. Magical. 

The fleeting and the past, brightness, contrast. Unreachable love.

A promise soothes deeper than touch. Unreliable, we become in its presence. 2025

[manuelmoncayo]

Six arms on top of one another,

Te amanece el buen humor, Te amanece todo arriba: la sangre, el cuerpo, la autoestima. 2025

[manuelmoncayo]

Aviña I miss your teeth, the rain on our faces, teenagers getting drunk.

I break down to tears in unexpected corners — dancing, in silence.

It’s not only your dimples that are missing — it’s the growth I had to do alone.

I don't remember your birthday. I learn from strangers about a ghost.

In the sunshine, brightening my existence — your heart, the seasons, spring again, the capital A, and the one in lower case, long gone. 2025

[manuelmoncayo]

Primavera

The old continent, Casa Azul Primario, a spark ignites deep within, a flame born beneath my ribs, and blooms outward, healing my soul, anointed with light.

You show me how to strengthen my steps, and I shrink at the thought of going out on the water with you. Let’s begin at the beginning —

2025

[manuelmoncayo]

Sergio* Chula Vista, 2025

*All images delicately censored.

[manuelmoncayo]

Adela 2025

[manuelmoncayo]

Tiliches 2025

[manuelmoncayo]

Decreto de amor a la belleza 2025