JUANITA

She does
Of my laundry
An art form
And knows
How to brew
Perfect coffee
She treats my offspring
Like royalty
And as I step
Out the door
She always
Says to me
God help you
And it sounds
Better in Spanish

CHILDREN

They eat
A breakfast
Of innocence
An evasion
Of calamity
The world
Is dying
Around them
Under the sun rays
They speak
To each other
They utter things
Like children do

EXCERPT POEM 7

As we sat

Next to the table
I saw

In your eyes
The story

Of our lives
It read:
Death with

A new beginning
And our future
Coated with tenderness

A HAPPY NEW YEAR

We entered
The New Year
Watching a movie
My two kids
Laying next to me
I pointed out
The folly
Of cinema
They laughed
At the screen
I smiled with them
They fell asleep
Long before I did
It was the best ever

METAMORPHOSIS

Spanish green eyes
An ocean
Of life
Fertile vegetation
The desert
Is fading away

MUSIC

The constant
Water drops
Hit the surface
I listen to

The steady drumbeat
In the dark

START

When I died
I saw
What I loved most
Disintegrate
Like pulverized idols
Before the Creator
I thought
It was the end
Of everything
It’s just
The beginning

FATAL

Death speaks to me
In a falsetto tone
I am buried
Under the ashes
Of my destruction
In this darkness
I see a growing light
A flame of love
Of resurrection

POEM 6

The warm wind
Whispers
The most
Beautiful mysteries
The moving leaves
Become your hair

PULSE

I write
With my heart
Now more than ever
Every time my
Heart beats
I think
Of you

¿A HISPANIC JIMMY HOFFA?

Fernando is
An ambitious kid
And he wants
To start a
UNION
At work
He’s a Meat Clerk
@
Henrys Market Place
Chula Vista
He said he cut himself
He showed me
His sliced finger
He also told me
About the time
He fell and landed
On his knees
But he managed
To save the tray of shrimp
He never reported
The injury
Now he tells me
It hurts
Write something
He said
About people hanging
As if were
From a cliff
Holding on
For dear life

LATE NOVEMBER

Commercial hymns
Fanning the
Consumer frenzy
Hypnotic marketplace
Subliminal ambushes
Of trade

FLIGHT SCHOOL

I wanted to
Be more like
The hawks
Or falcons
Or whatever flies
In a cool
And gracious way
But I am
More like
A hummingbird
Inhaling the marrow
Out of circumstance

RON COHN
MY
EMPLOYER

The store owner
Said to me
“Peace brother”
He said
“This is retail”
But I know
Peace is not
For sale
Where there is pain
There’s no peacefulness
Peace is a fruit
Of friendship
And I know
Friends don’t exploit friends
Friends don’t let friends
Become the working poor
Friends don’t insult friends
Peace!
What a precious word
I can only hope
I can only wish
Ron speaks from
The bottom of his heart
I think a pay raise
For ALL his workers
Could be the beginning
Of the path of peace

TRAVELS

In the desert’s night
We saw the fire
Capricious spheres
Levitating and smoking

The sky became
A spectacle

A distraction
To the prayer
Of my heart

We passed truckers
Who stopped to watch
We carried on
Our way.

RECOGNIZANCE

I got on
An airplane
Up in the clouds
I did not see
Any angels
I found them
On land
Healing the hearts
Of those who grieve
I saw them in the eyes
Of those who
Hold steadfast
To hope

THE QUESTION

How are you doing?
She asked
It hurts
I answered
The marketing symbols
Were all around us
Like mosquitoes
On standing water
But I do have faith
For a better tomorrow
A painless morning
Where healing
And justice
Are one
I believe
With all my heart
That goodness
Will prevail
And the
Angels of illness
Will flee in terror
You see,
We are about

To reach
A beautiful place

GROCERY

Under the sun
Many consumers
Most of them
Tried to purchase health
I helped them
The best I could
With their search
All those shattered souls
My heart brakes
The most
For the ones
With cancer
Then I remembered
My knee has
Become a dichotomy

INSPECTOR PERKINS

Crossing the
US—Mexico border
Is a paradox
I read a sign that says

Pledge to Travelers
We pledge to cordially greet and welcome you to the United States.
We pledge to treat you with courtesy, dignity, and respect…

When the green light
Turned on
And I drove pass
The x-ray machines
The inspector shouted:

“Go ahead,
but when the world comes to an end
we are not going to help your people”

I love
My country

MY MANAGER

You need
To pick up
The pace
He said
It hurts
I replied
That’s why
I go slowly
When working
On the shelves
Pushing the RX
And thinking
Of something beautiful
Modified duty
Inside each can
Organic rights
In each of
Those lovely bottles