MARIEL
Over cadavers
of homeless country men
laying in the gutters
thrown away like scraps
for the dogs;
Over ninety miles of blue
Death
We stumbled
>From one vine to another
Broken
into displaced portions
of a larger whole
While a father held
his baby girl
for the last time
Before
he drowned in his own
blood
We stumbled
As the women bid good-bye
to their unborn
through twenty years
of separation, of
Castration
While the clean water
washed up red
and sandy white turned
to a darker shade
We stumbled
Into freedom
face down on the floor
with a brick wall
behind and before
US!
when there was nowhere
else to go
but home
to fish out all the bones
We stumbled
>From the depths
of a vacuum
a bearded rebel called
Justice
some fifty years ago
before the war
that digested
the olive skin
of a soldier
who never came
to remember
just what
he fought for
We stumbled
Over memories
of everything
we were
before
We stumbled!
ALL I NEED
All I need
is a little entertaining
specially on these long nights
when I want to reach out
but there’s nothing
to fill my mind,
no one I’d want to think of
without a "but" attached.
So, I remember you
without all the realities,
with all the commodities
that we all like to forget
and have.
All I need is a little entertaining:
a glass of wine, a beer,
a little tequila,
a witty comeback,
a wink of the eye,
the sound of a Castilian guitar,
a smoky room, a drag
from a Cuban cigar,
your skin on mine.
But you walk by
in your Nazi stance
with that crossed look
upon your brow
not so even noticing me,
laying on the couch.
And still, ever so often
you wonder why.
Someone else entertains me.
A CALL TO HIGH ROAD
As you very well know
I only whispered
when the wind didn’t carry
words farther than I
could carry my load.
And although
it was quite heavy,
I did enjoy its weight
upon my back,
now broken.
Many a time, I came across
a wandering soul.
One much like mine
reached out to relieve
my burden.
I turned a cheek to every
one of them.
I believed my gain
should have never been
another man’s loss,
rather, vice-versa.
Still, I do admit
there were some days
that I had,
onto another, done
heartfelt details
I never came to,
for myself, accept.
And when he turned away,
I realized
my philosophy wasn’t only
my own.
And that deed which some
give to the term
karma,
had indeed onto me
been done.
Contrary to popular belief
there was not a lesson
learned,
rather a mere understanding
of what my footsteps
against the soil, had meant
to this Earth.
Nothing-
had much meaning
in the long run.
Instead, I had been
the second hand
on a wrist watch
running behind.
I had been
part of the instant
at which day breaks,
night falls,
a baby’s first gasp
turns to a cry.
I was there all along,
speechless.
Now, I can only hope
to return
to the beginning,
because although,
in itself,
this journey has been worth
much more than the pain,
I much rather pack and go
than be forever here
dissatisfied.
DEATH BY MUSE
(excerpt)
II
And then, around came Monday
with its particular flair
of independence and weathered fair
upon its exit and entrance.
You passed me by as if a stranger
whom had never made your acquaintance,
needed a nod to remember
that he deserved the attention
of such a sought after gentleman.
And as your chin rose up to the sky
to meet the Sun's heavy glare,
I, as you, nodded the likes
of a child learning to dare,
in a wretched world,
now bare.
But I too can play your poker.
Although a lady I am,
I can also guzzle whiskey
in the back of a parked cab.
And so what?
After all it's nineteen-ninety-nine.
And we're all supposed to be
that harsh.
So you made your way past me.
And just as well,
I lit a manly cigar.
You couldn't have seemed half
as calculating as I.
And so what?
As if that's the package
I wanted to buy.
