STRONG HOUSE


I knocked on their door
And 3 children opened
I asked if their parents were home
Mom is but dad is not
They answered
Can you call her?
They all ran in unison and came back
With her

Juan so nice to see you!!!!!

At the dinner table
We ate Italian ingredients
And drank Italian wine

And their 8 year old daughter
Played and incredible composition
On the family’s piano
And she said
I wrote it when I was
6 years old

The boy that likes to
Play at imaginary
Gun battles began to call me
Juan the Swan

And the other two
Were busy fighting over ice-cream
As their parents and I
Enjoyed the wine

The other child
Spoke poetic
He said:

The octopus lollipop
Looking at the open wound
The blood pours like wine

It was good to see them happy
Their parents were also happy
But they just don’t know
How happy they really are

FOUND


I found contrition once again
Hidden inside a service book
In the Buddhist temple
As they meditated I tried not to
Make too much noise
As I flipped the pages

I understand more why people meditate
It is to keep their sanity
Their meditation was lulling me to sleep
But I was not there to fall asleep
I was there to find the word I was
Looking for

Afterwards we drove to a restaurant
Its walls were decorated with skulls
We sat on a table next to a bar
Ordered our food & drinks
And began to consider life
Our food arrived and we began eating
And talking about existence

That’s looks good
Said one of the girls sitting next at the bar
My friend took her task for their innuendo
And made them order fish
The same as him

The bartender felt somewhat threatened
As he clamored for their attention
My friend told him to behave
Or he would tell the owner he was interfering
With the customers good ambiance

My girlfriend is a technical writer he said
And she took me to a poetry reading
But I did not like it
I did not feel like applauding the poets
There were just words without any feeling
I asked him if he liked his meditation ways
And he said yes
Then I think you will like haiku

I told him about the 5-7-5 rule
About the day and night
About the time of year
About how it should say so much
With so little
And he came out was this:

La Calaca

Las chicas guapas
Hambrientas de nosotros
Noche brillosa

Then the owner came to our table
And asked if everything was fine
He said yes
I said yes
And we talked about cinema
And about the haiku
Send it to me she said
I will place it next to the skulls

Then she invited us to her office
We talked about Benedetti & Jorodosky
The barman also entered and identified
Himself as a middleman
He seemed a little nervous
But I shook his hand
And told him I would like
To do business with him

COMO CASI SIEMPRE


La mañana llega como casi siempre
temerosa de lo que puede ocurrir
cuestión sospechosa
caprichosa porque sólo es
un momento finito
con una determinación
que sólo está ocurriendo
en intermitencias frecuentes

en el aire el amor es más evidente
a miles de metros de la tierra
sobre las nubes efímeras
en las caricias del aliento del creador
que sacuden el avión
poniendo a prueba
la elasticidad de mis nervios

pero la nave lleva tu nombre
y tu hermosura impregna la cabina
tu belleza sobre una mesa
descansa mirándome
quedándose dormida
yo también cierro mis ojos

NIGHT OUT


I saw the old man drinking coke
Once again tonight
This time there was no commentary
From my boys

I figured he got to reach old age
Because of the same reason George Burns did
And not from drinking the cola drink

Nonetheless I thought of you again
Because one member of the group
Who was next to us
Had your profile & school girl manners

And wondered if I would need to write
Some sort of similar letter
To a future grandchild

Always thought of writing letters to my children
But this was the first time
I entertained the idea of my children’s offspring

I asked if they liked
This movie better than yesterdays flick
They said they liked them both about the same

On our way home
We stopped at our favorite taco stand
There was a woman in a red car
She seemed to be waiting for us

We did not pay much attention
Because we were hungry
And wanted to eat some carne asada

The kids got the table
They follow the protocol flawlessly
And I felt so proud

The woman in red had an attendant with her
They both got out of their vehicle
And sat close to us

We won she said
And her friend took out his cell phone
And make some calls

We won all over the state she said
As we bit the best red meat in the world
And cars honking and weaving flags
Were driving by & the boys began
To make comments about bread

GHOST


I place the photograph
Where I like it
And it keeps
Moving it back
Putting it back
And I place it again
And it moves it back
And we do this
On and on
I never thought
Such annoyance
Would be funny