A beautiful bird alights on my hand, sur-
prising me out of my otherly thoughts,
and shows me its plumage, close to my eyes:
its iridescent feathers ruffle as it’s inspired
to sing spontaneously to the tune of nature
which it hears constantly but chooses now
to pay attention and align itself with;
its throat muscles undulate up and down with
the notes [...]
Monthly Archives: September 2009
A Bird
Posted in poems Leave a comment
Taxi drive on a sunny Saturday
The reflection of the sun in the glass of
a driver’s side window of a car stopped
for a red light agitates and causes ache
in eyes that try to keep the brilliant
whiteness on the periphery as they
look beyond to admire the archi-
tecture of the buildings that stand like canyon
walls towering above a trickling stream of traffic.
The sunlight [...]
Posted in poems Leave a comment
The red box
He gave me a paper mariposa
and told me of the butterfly
forest in Michoacan, Estado de Mexico,
to thank me for paying him more
than what he had initially asked.
Jorge, the puppeteer, the Spanish teacher.
The exercise he planned that day was to show
a video of a performance of his that was called
“Sin Palabras,” or “Without Words,”
and I was [...]
Posted in poems Leave a comment
Transitioning
Dusk. There is no reason
why this should happen
now, but I am certain
I have passed out of the brooding
mood I’d been in and again
have begun to think of things
with that razor-thin exactitude
that makes living possible.
Posted in fragments Leave a comment
Portrait of an imposing delinquent
A guy I knew in high school who
was known for taking lots of
drugs, who smoked pot during lunch
and all his free periods:
one time I bought some pot from him
(he ripped me off for what I paid
but I didn’t care), we drove
in his car to the water to smoke
a copious cigar-full.
I kept checking the mirrors
for cops [...]
Posted in fragments Leave a comment
Bad Brakes
It has taken me years to finally buy a car. I went on doing my business on foot for years, accomplishing very little. Now that I have a car, however, I am getting more things done (though it may not always seem so). The brakes on it are shot. In order to stop you have [...]
Posted in prose Leave a comment
Masturbation
No one is here to touch me where
I am and there is no one I can
go to and tell to touch me.
My head is stocked with visions of
the love I have made and the vul-
nerability my lovers exposed in letting
themselves be stripped before me and lying
on their backs, their arms and legs spread open.
My head [...]
Posted in poems Leave a comment
Appetence
Something as commonplace as a door
slammed shut
shocks you and makes you realize just
how cold you are and how cold you have
gone around being.
You chose this cold.
You eat food
cold. You go outside
in a t-shirt in the afternoon
when there is nothing but shade in the street,
though the sky above is still blue.
You chose the cold to numb [...]
Posted in poems Leave a comment
What you wish for
The thing that was anticipated
happens, and the response
that had been planned for
is mulled over while
the execution is delayed,
and the effect perhaps
it should have had is savored
beforehand, because afterward
it will be as forgotten
as if it never happened -
the moment in which it is done
will hardly even be realized.
The waiting then continues
causing desperation in variegated forms -
many [...]
Posted in poems Leave a comment
Elvis
We put off having to accept invitations to dinners,
knowing that anyone who spends more than a couple
minutes getting to know us will come to think
of us as strange and not worth the effort
of attempting to see again. We put them off
not because we dislike people and are anti-social;
it is that the step further we want [...]
Posted in poems Leave a comment