Sunday, August 30, 2009

DRIVE


The traffic completely stopped
And when I was about the change lanes
The band began to play
It was definitely rock & roll because they were
Literally rocking and rolling on the roof of a bus
And the drummer was hitting them drums
And the bass guitar
Was making the streets vibrate
And the cars were shaking too
I began to feel comfortable
I knew it would be a good night

Like when the Hummer in front of me
Was being exhaustively searched by the army
And the soldiers looked happy doing their job
And I felt happy to be watching such a spectacle
Childhood heroes saving my day

I drove into the night
Amongst scared drivers
Broken cars & broken hearts
Broken streets & broken minds
I drove the best I could
I drove with tenacity
Holding a restless wheel
Holding my restless dreams

I stopped at a convenience store
and grabbed a six pack
Waited my turn in line as a stressed out
Cashier hurried the best she could
There was a drifter behind me with apple soda
And he said to me:
This will not cure me but I will refresh me
And he looked at my six pack and telepathically
He said: I’ll trade you
And telepathically I answered him: No

In front of me was a man
With his young daughter
He was holding a large & heavy water bottle
And he looked generally unhappy
But the concern for his daughter was
What kept him alive
When it was my turn I paid my sixty pesos
The cashier said thank you
I said you welcome
And walked outside towards my car
Being followed by a stream of suspicious glances

And at the house the words
It is so good to see you!
But it sounds better in Spanish
And it was good to see them too
Because it its good to see poets & writers
Specially if there’s enough seafood & wine

And as you were having your dream
She approached me and said
I like ice-cream

And I was going to answered her
Saying that I like ice-cream too
But I was called by the intellectual couple
In the corner of the room
Sat on the sofa next to them
And they asked me about current poetic trends
And I said something like:
It is a simple as speaking
Pretty similar to what we are doing right now

And the ice-cream girl was looking at me
From a distance and was raising her voice
As she spoke

So I walked to terrace and light up my cigar
Looked at the tallest hill in the city
On its top there were repeaters
Blinking in the night
On its bottom there were crazy taxi drivers
And a SUV’s gone insane
The smoke from my cigar
Made it all better

2 comments:

M said...

enjoyed going on this journey with you

Martínez said...

Maria,

Thank your comment. It is a privilege for me to know, that one of poems, is a journey. It reassures me that I had done my job as a poet. This is one of the best prices a writer can receive.