25 May, 2012

Holiday

Noon-time office cocktails and
emptying classrooms,
humming with final grades
and summer bonuses,
announce the long weekend away.

The cities empty, their inhabitants
eagerly packing hat-boxes
and sandals for a few days away,
to escape routine
and combat responsibility.

A day set to remember,
it is spent most often
at some lake-front beach
or a back-yard picnic table,
grills fired up and beach pails filled.

For a brief while, people recall
youthful banter, simple activities,
and the aching relief
of a skyscraper’s weight
removed if only for a day or two.

22 May, 2012

Spain Haiku

Antiquated thoughts
of bohemian travel
leave traces of smiles.

Indifference

With Past’s glue-like demeanor
drying on skin, begging to be peeled off,
Indifference comes to the rescue
and demonstrates the Future’s tempo.

Indifference is cold, polite, even-tempered
and the Past’s anger is reddened,
immediately blotted out like ink spilt
on a pristine white floor.

Indifference and the Future have less
to squabble about; the Past has too
much at stake to merely mutely accept
this concise and neatly packaged outcome.

The Future is bright, open, and flexible,
though often crowed by Past’s memory.
Indifference is able to put up secure and homely
picket fences that enable cordial conversation.

Description

My muscles are short but my patience is
looooooong,
with ribbons of sinuous tissue wrapping
around memory and bone.

My mood is calm but my temper is
fireryyyyyyyy,
with sparks of chemical reaction spinning
out of their own control.

My voice is quiet but my laugh is
loooouuuuud,
with a small convulsing diaphragm gasping
with pure, delicious delight.

El Duelo de Amor

Los duelos de amor, con canciones cortavenas,
representan pasajes del corazón fuerte.
Su memoria, el del amor, contiene frases
celebres y melodias que no se deben ocultar.
Picara y pesada, esta memoria no deja
al duelo en paz, pasando como un fantasma
sin avisar, como un vecino empalagoso.

Los duelos de amor, con cartas y poesías antiguas,
contienen amistades y pasiones extrañadas.
Su elasticidad ayuda a convertir el pasado en
algo lleno de energía que se puede usar, no guardar.
Fuerte y ágil, esta elasticidad no permite que
el duelo se haga viejo, ayudándolo mantener
su poder para el recuerdo y nostalgia infinita.

Los duelos de amor, con conversaciones y sonrisas,
se reparten entre amantes, amigos, y familiares.
Su gramática, amorosa, define las ideas y conceptos
que se inventa el cerebro humano mágico.
Científica con su arte, esta gramática guarda
las reglas más importantes para poder describir
la maravilla del duelo y su gemela bella, la alegría.

09 May, 2012

Brasil

Brasil must be filled with light
and music
and beautiful women everywhere.

Brasil must be poetic and brazen,
with its sinful language,
sounding like sex.

Brasil must have the best dancers,
all able to
bossa-nova and samba.

Brasil must have insomnia,
with daily parties
in the colorful streets.

Brasil must be impatient,
its position on the globe
never allowing rest.

Summer is Coming

Summer is coming,
as the days drag longer
across pavements and grasses
with hotter streaks of
temperature and light.

Summer is coming,
though Spring fights to
stay on, bringing rainstorms
and hail to cool off the
rays of the sun.

Summer is coming;
restlessness amongst the
youth brings new fashions,
crimes, vacations, and
boisterous temperaments.

Summer is coming,
and with it the sensation of
meaningful exchanges along with
impermanence, both in
love and recreation.

Summer is coming,
with our sweats returning
and bare feet peaking out,
wanting to feel the heat
from lessened responsibilities.

Tomato

Tomatoes are great because of their entrails
that are filled with unripe, soulful juice, bloody and sweet.
These fruits, most cleverly lumped in with vegetables,
dissect themselves into soups and salads and sauces
and scream at everyone with long vowels and hand gestures.
Sailing from the New World back to the Old, and christened in Nahuatl,
they roam the planet over with their amicable adaptability.

Hazel

Though not in love,
she spent much of the afternoon that way,
the feeling spilling over into the later hours
from the morning.

The hazel light of the sun’s evening glow
cast shadows that seemed to not be attached to things,
reminding her of Peter Pan having his sewn on
to his Lost Boys shoes.

The temporary sensations of love
pouring out of her skin matched the light
which enhanced the whole room, fusing energies
that seemed to smile.

The desire for adventure lingered
in the air, as it always seemed to do around her,
but she felt at ease and at peace with her
aching wanderlust.

Though not in love,
she felt the euphoria of being so,
with the hazel light and the solitary shadows
hugging her and giving her comfort with that
moment in time.