NERVOUS LAUGHTER

It is amusing
To watch people quarrel
For things that don’t matter
Wasted energy in a dying planet
Time burning away
From the kiss of plenitude

WHAT MATTERS


The most important things
Are dressed in frugality
Have nothing to do
With the intoxicating
Aftertaste of success
So simple and spooky
Even if poverty bites the ego
The pain is healing medicine

LAS NAVIDADES

La ambición
Es un río de incertidumbre
La certeza está
En la muerte de los espejismos
Al fenecer emanan vida

A POETIC EXCERPT
BY JUAN JOSÉ MARTÍNEZ


Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world… Ezra Pound


3

The road is more arrogant than the skies even with brand new cars
Rented with usury—stained credit cards and its satanic seepage
Everything is so awful

That we must escape to Mexico
And take refuge in the surrealism that holds families together
But we find uncertainty in the very rich
And recklessness in the very poor
We are begged not to depart because our new friends fear the unknown
And they want us to stay inside their hearts so we can also love them as they love us
And now we take the task

To find the meaning of love
We drive through dusty streets

And pick up pilgrims
On the way to the land of milk and honey
Who carry with them bibles and crosses that will make them invisible
So when they cross the border the gunmen will not be able to see them and kill them.

4

The freeways are anything but free with their tormented drivers high on oil
With hummers everywhere serving as signs of the apocalypse
And things get better

When we enter the Arizona desert
Because there is less obviousness

And more otherness
The road greets the darkness of night time and everything seems romantically tragic
Inside our carriage of luxury I try to stop in the middle of the stars
To find out more about

The significance of marriage
But we continued ahead

And when we felt the sting of suburban withdrawals
Once in awhile my high beams illuminated

Random cactuses petrified with solitude
As we eat in a diner by the roadside

I remembered how Adam lost paradise

Because of his refusal to fast
I decided to make a mountain

Of ketchup on my plate
Using french-fries as little trees

Left to out to die by loggers.

AIRPORT

The travelers
Are happy
Not because they see
Their estranged love ones
But because they landed
And they’re alive.

LANGUAGUES

Don’t feel bad
If you don’t understand
Academics speak
From the coldness
Of their grey matter
And you speak
With fire
Form you heart.

POEM FOR THE NEW YORKER

If my words
Land on
That paradise
Of letters
And meaning
It would be better
Than finding
A lost treasure.

USAMA

Bin Laden
Got away
He was
Last seen
Driving a
Black minivan.

POEM TO LENNY KRAVITZ

Brother
After all these years
You still have
The touch of melody
Your musical experiments
Laden with risk
Fertilize gracefulness
You still have
Tons of feeling.

ASFALTO

Las carreteras
Se dilatan
Como millones de
Serpientes venenosas
Por todo el mundo.



ASPHALT

The highways stretch
Like millions
Of poisonous snakes
Through out
The whole world.

THE POLICEMAN

It is not
The same
To shoot
Than to be
Shot at
When the
Bank robbers
Opened fire
You did not feel
Tough anymore
You became
Small with fear
You had a
Bowl movement
Your foot
Pressed against
The brake pedal
Your squad car
Came to a stop
You let them
Get away.

A GOOD WRITER

Jim Vaca
Was the best writer
In college
He won awards
And his picture
Was published in
The news papers
I liked him
We would talk
About writing
And poetry
And intriguing stories
Jim was gifted
And Jim was poor
(Blessed are the poor
Someone famous once said)
Years later
I saw him
On a public bus
He seemed homeless
And in need
I wish
I had done
More to help him.

LOS EMPLEADOS

Son como los osos
Del bosque
Cuando se comen
Las hamburguesas
De los turistas.

ESCARNECEDOR

Su risa
Lo asemeja
A un perro
Con la lengua
De fuera

NON GRATA

I open the door
And adversity comes in
I try not to yawn
To keep it out

I SAID

I have
The best wife
In the whole world
It’s only your opinion
They said
It’s the only opinion
Than matters to me
I said.

DRIVING WITH LUKAS

I ask
My 4 year old
What he’s thinking
I can see his face
In the rearview mirror
His eyes
Are soft
Like honey
Relaxed
Dreamy
The ocean
He answers
I look through
The car’s window
And the water
Is beautiful.

NOVEMBER 2ND 2004

The owner
Of the internet café
Had a dream
A nuclear blast hit the US
He said
A lot of gringos
Where moving
Down here
To Baja Mexico
He spoke nonchalantly
As we watched
The election results
On a TV
Than hangs from the wall.

A CULTURE OF DEATH

On the day
Of the death
Bush secured
The White House
Winter began early

NOSOTROS

La calavera
Somos tú y yo
En el futuro
Hay que amar
Las calaveras.