We Are Not All Mexican

This is a work in progress, but I had to get it out before I lost what I was thinking about…

 

We Are Not All Mexican

 

Every day I see the men sitting

waiting

their eyes ever hopeful

search mine for cash resurrection

as my truck rolls on by

the empty lots in Suffern

 

At home the wives/girlfriends

seek out homes to clean

by word of mouth

their children

meet my children

in school

 

The women

desperate for a voice come to family planning

I hear stories of Guatemala, Ecuador, Mexico

El Salvador

children left behind

with mothers, grandmothers, and mother in laws

 

They gave up so much to come here

did they know it was going to be like this?

Is the $ worth the loss?

How would I even know?

People seeking to change their lives

and we judge over language-I mean color

 

We are ignorant

They are brave

They are ignorant

We are brave

 

Words that divide and judge

when we should really just understand

the human-ness in the experiences we all participate in.

Also, I would like to add, I wrote one poem with the word vagina in it…..can you believe the amount of visitors I get for vagina! Unbelievable.  I should use penis next time…only why?

I tried, I really really tried the NAPOWRIMO and well…..between Passover, Easter, unexpected guests, more guests, and getting ill I just couldn’t produce the poetry. I have a couple written on *gasp* paper-but they didn’t get to here. And well, the more I look at something I’ve written the more I hate it. Thats why I write and post fast w/o looking back. Otherwise I would’ve given up a long time ago!

NAPOWRIMO #11, 2009

Daily Life (pt 1)

Outside, mismatched soldiers
march in parade formation:
purple lizard man with a dinosaur head for an arm,
an Italian turtle wearing an orange mask
fight bloodless pirates
who attack from their skeletal ghost ship.
Who cares? The sun is out at last,
let them play as they see fit!

NAPOWRIMO # 10, 2009

love diminished by a tornado
that swept through your heart
you lack the luster
of his latest guitar
dust settles, cows swell
dip your cloth in water
his shiny medallion
chokes you as well

Between visitors and Passover I’ve had no time to post a poem.  I think I’ll post a few today to cover me for the few days I could not get to the computer….

NAPOWRIMO # 8 2009

Methaphors for Addiction

old flames
linger like
the taste of onions
even after
my teeth are brushed
I sit and wonder the list is long
1st grade kiss under the cypress tree
fast forward to the same school
a boyfriend who brings beer
on a bicycle date in the woods
giant black snakes fall from towering trees
the forest creeps up to the road that we sit on
destroyed asphalt crumbles underneath our bare legs
he becomes my first true un-love
a soul tormented by demons
the list of his faults could go on
how many metaphors are there
for addiction anyway?

NAPOWRIMO day 9, 2009

berber rugs
highway trucks roar throughtout the night
mice wonder in and out with a wary eye for felines
you spend your days mocking
as parasitic demons thirst
in the only way they know how
we sent ourselves down here
to sleep in the suburbs
a feast of lady slippers and daffodils
amidst a simmer of lives
instead we ate scat that our neighbors offered as good will

NAPOWRIMO, 2009 – Day 5

walk at the lake

rotten dead corpse of a mostly eaten animal
fur partially visible
shrunken dehydrated body missing teeth
and a half of a head
animal forensics not being my forte
I could not identify the body
even with hairs attached

to the delight of the children
I was able to detect
footprints of opossum, raccoon, toddler
to and fro waters edge

amidst the constant green scat of canadian geese
and chocolate offerings of deer
we hop scotched our way
smelling rotten flesh
and pond scum
teenaged cigarette butts litter the sand

we can’t wait for summer to start
when the lake is chlorine clean
and cottonmouths roam free

NAPOWRIMO 2009 #4

sun caressed cobwebs linger affectionately
inside the creaking house
where wind whistles like a train

who howled like that last night?
barely above a whisper
echoing through the staircase,
rooftop,
and darkness

trucks pass by on the highway,
planes overhead roar

underneath it all
a high pitched moan
shimmers on an endless loop inside
your now wide awake mind