CYNTHYA

She was
My first editor
She was friends
With Blanca

And there was
This international contest
Between schools
From both sides
Of the border

All kinds of
Cool projects
Technological
And artistic
Were submitted

I only felt
Comfortable writing
So I wrote a poem
About the beach

I guess in retrospect
It was an eco-poem

About people…

People swimming
In shit

And I gave
Cynthia the
Rough draft
And she made it
Make sense

She corrected
All the typos
And the errors
And tried to
Make it
Mistake-free

But we all now
Every poem
Is a mistake

Because a good poem
Is a good mistake

A big poem
Is a big mistake

Little poems
(My favorite)
Are little mistakes

Just like normalcy
Is fallacy
The truth
Is a mistake
To those in the
Unnatural world

We submitted
The poem
And it did not
Win 1st place
Nor 2nd
Nor 3rd

It got
A honorary
Mention award

I remember
My father
Being very proud

So much
That he bought me
My first pair of
Cowboy boots

BLANCA


When I was on 8th grade
I decided to translate
The lyrics from
Foreigner’s
Hot Blooded song
Into Spanish

Class was boring
I think this
Is the first document
That I ever translated

I could only remembered
The chorus
So that’s what
I wrote down
On my school notebook
With my red pen

I identified
With the singer
When he would
Make reference
To having a fever
Of 103

Because I used
To get constant fevers

I think I translated
That part like this

“ I have a fever
Of 100 degrees”

It seems like
It was yesterday

Blanca
The prettiest
Girl in class
Who was sitting
Next to me
Asked to see
What I was writing

To this day
I don’t know
What she
Thought of it
Because she
Just looked
At me
And smiled

She was
So beautiful
And I knew
Her beautiful face
Her beautiful smile
Her beautiful presence
Was a gesture
Of approval

Later on
I wrote poems
For her
Which were
Lost forever

I also wrote
A song for her

I lost the piece
Of paper
That it was
Written on

But I know it
By heart

CASI NADA

La ilusión del amor
Es tan poderosa
Como la televisión

Me como
Un cono
Como un astrónomo

La luna
Esta bajo
La influencia
Del Serafín

Romano
Como Roman
Cerebro eléctrico

Que no hace nada
Como los patos
Porque no rima
Con la electricidad

El Papa
Charla con
El papá

Un tren
Entrena
A un electricista

Correo cerrero
Que dominas
A los cerrajeros

Link de Slavonia
Un tigre se come
A Tigris

El jinete
En la playa
Con caballo
De Albania

Y los niños
Son los mejores
Para diagnosticar
La locura