Malicious, malignant
Crude, cruel
Your punishment for me
When didn’t tell you things I felt
Was to treat me like a dog

Call every thirty minutes
Not allowed alone with the kids
Else the police will show up
Make sure you’re not dead

I didn’t tell about the darkness
For fear of what you’d do
And as it grew it seeped out
Creeped up, out of the blue
And just as I thought
How did you respond?
Well let’s just say now
Im a fish without pond
I’m a hare without speed
Im an eagle without wings
I’m a person. Without air.

Feeling worse
More alone
More hated
More close
Just days ago I thought
I knew the worst

But ‘lo
I was wrong
And now I’m just wrung
Without fun
Seen as dung
Just a fungús

I wish it were done
Or that I’d never spoke at all
Everything was better
When it was all behind walls

When I planted those flowers
And grew them for you
I never thought of what you’d do
Perennials they were, with gorgeous hues
But you took them and cut them out of the blue
Stuck them in a vase for everyone to see
Watered them lightly until they wilted
And want faded away

Those flowers
To me
We’re me and you
The love that we grew
Cherished and knew
And at the first sign of beauty
You snatched them right up
New blossoms could not bloom
For you came in on cue

Withered and wrinkled
Discarded and dry
Colors all lost
Beauty long squashed
We were flowers in bloom
And we will bloom again
But the ugly remainder
Of what was and will be
Will always lay there

In the trash

I used to love words
Before I met you
But now I hate them;
They’ll never capture you
How you look on fine mornings,
Or Sunday afternoons,
Our walks in the streets,
Our laughs on ears meet,
Our lips pressed together,
When you tell me forever

They never can tell
How all my love is yours
Or how I feel at night
Knowing I am yours

I used to love words
But then I met you
And I want to say all the things
words never knew
No dictionary can define
Nor thesaurus will find
The words I should feel
When you’re hands in mind

La idioma de español
Sabe todos mis secretos
Todos el chismo
Pero que uno
Y anoche
En el calor de la cocina
Español aprendió mi más grande secreto
“Quieres el verdad?”
“No me gusta mujeres así”
Y Jesús dijo
“¿Porque? ¿Ellas son demasiado gordita?”
Nos Reímos
Y entonces
“No…no me gusta mujeres, Jesús”
Dije
“Soy gay”
Silencio
Nadie hablaban
Nadia se reía
Nadie cocinaba
“Pues…”
El dijo
“¿Tienes un novio?”
El tension en la cocina eliminaba al instante
Sonreí
Me reí
“No, Jesús, pero lo deseo uno”

Am I to be a poet?
Who writes of all he sees?
Who spews his dreams across the page?
Reflecting harsh and cynical?
Deep within old age?

Shall I grow much in wisdom?
A Sage who’s never enraged?
Filled with patience, hope, and heart
Because he lives on stage?
And his mind on a page
His rage in a cage
The readers head
Filled instead
With the things he never said

What shall I be?
Should I dart to share my art?
In forms of clay and word
Which never will curd but always will curb
And roll and refine
As gems from the mine
That make the most beautiful ring

That’s what I shall be.
A gift,
Shining bright.
—a ring—

I am gliding overhead
Wishing I was instead in bed
As I look to the world
I see no imperfections
No human error
No fatal flaw
For a moment we are ants
Birds
Trout
Deer
We are freed from famine
Purged of plague
Without war
Perfect passing free fall
We are one
And none
And then we hit the pocket