TEQUILA & THE FLU


My friend
My Hollywood friend
My BMW friend
My school friend
My wine friend
My party friend

My friend
Who warned me love
Has a salty taste

My friend
Who introduced me
To the church
But he did not enter

My friend
Who gave me money
When I had none
And when I told him
I bought beer & pizza with it
He gave me a strange look

My friend
With his beautiful girlfriends
His good advice
His firearms
His guidance
His suspicious ways

My friend
The daredevil
Fighting semi trucks
With his motorcycle

My friend
The soldier
The sinner
The human being

My God-fearing friend…

My friend the mystic
My friend who told me
He thought of me when
He read the adventures
Of Don Juan

My friend came to the city
And invited me to a party
And I looked at him preoccupied
Because I was sick with the flu
My friend said
You better rest then
And I said: nonsense
And grabbed my flask
Full of medicine
And place it in my coat pocket

My friend & I
Walking on wet sidewalks
Entering the a house
With 3 floors
And everybody began to say
Hello-how-are-you-good-to-see-you

My friend talked with his friends
And I took my medicine
And it was good
And heard the band playing
In the basement
I got happy & excited
And headed towards the stairs
But the medicine was good
And the flu was strong
And I managed to reach
The basement on my back

My friend:
Juan are you okay?
Juan are you okay?
Juan are you okay?
We better take him home

My friend
Who the next day
Took me to hospital
And said to me:
When you were lifeless
The girls began to cry
And I tried to visualize the scene but
I fell in love with the doctor
When she asked me if
I had a place to stay
And I almost said
Take me with you

My friend
Who took me back home
And sent his girlfriend
To check up on me
I was on my Murphy bed
And she sat on my side
And I could read her eyes
And they said something like:
Oh my poor baby
And then she got very close to me
Like the time my mother found me
With a Canadian girl on her bed
We were watching TV off course
But she got mad anyway
And she got so close to me that
I thought she was going to kiss me
Very brave no afraid of the flu
But she was my friend’s girl

My friend
Who turned religious
Like most of us did
And sent proselytes
To my doorstep
But the girls who lived there
Needed that religion more
Than I did because they were witches
And I think they scared the messengers
And I told them that I could not help them
And that was the last I heard from him

My friend
May his good deeds
Come back to him
May others help him
Like he helped me
Wherever he is

THE GIRL


Juan Martínez...
I looked towards my back
Searching for
The trail of her voice

And found
The most ethereal
The most benign
The most heavenly
Girl on the hall

Yes?
I asked her
Thank you for reading
The Clock and
Soy Leche

You are welcome and...
Please tell them
It is my pleasure

She smiled
Turned around
And walked
Out the door

POETRY READING


The American poet read
Something she called
A desert girl fantasy
I thought it was
A marvelous poem
I tried to contained
The emotions that
Such word stirred
Such as imported images

The second poet
Read about being
A writer
And the struggles
Of such reality
But my favorites
Were his war poems
I mentioned this to him
And he looked at me
With Viet Nam eyes

When it was my turn
I deliberately read
The most awkward
Of my poems
Hoping for the best
And a quick getaway
But an ex bureaucrat
Told me the poems
Where captivating
I asked why
He said it was the
Way I read them

I walked away from him
Got my check
From the host
And got out of there
As fast as I could