Love, why do you restrain me so?
Your metal manacles are cold and unforgiving
Just like you; and not much can be said
About my weak ankles as well.

Why must you leave me feeling astray
Like a damp labrador in need of a home?
Am I forced to remain street fodder for
The rats and worms in a criminal underworld?

Please release me, or at least
Slice off both of my arms so that
You may keep them, my arms that hoped
To have held you, loved you, written for you;
They shall serve you as a memento
Of a rotting memory in a dark corner
Never to have cherished you so,
But alas! To have cherished you from afar
Was a venture most fulfilling

I had once waited for your warmth
To make my heart of coal dazzle,
Like the diamonds I always saw in your eyes.
God, isn’t it funny how the beguiling wind
Bewitches the leaves to dance for her
Only to be scattered away like trash?

Walking in the woods, I fell
Down into a knothole that lead
To another realm, unlike our own

‘Twas a wondrous realm like a twilit dream
Where the dazzling sky at night engulfed all
And satyrs who were young like me
Beckoned me to their sordid ******
Fountains of wine poured into streams,
And wood nymphs danced and bathed in falls
Deliciously drunken and sweet, calling me
To pick their flowers.

We caroused and we aroused
As we fired our slingshots into the sky
And watched the night shimmer with the
Comets we launched up and away.
I fired mine, foolishly unaware
That my target was the moon so full
I shattered my joy to pieces
And brought this realm to darkness

The satyrs howled in fear
The wood nymphs withered away
The fountains of wine turned into blood
And I was left drowningl
Until a glorious golden hand
Went from the moon’s place to
Shield me, carry me back to reality.
I awoke in a sweat and a shiver
'Twas always night in the Satyr’s Garden
Be it drenched with stars and ecstasy,
'Twas night, and night to remain.

Wintry nights in Spring.
The farmer sits with his icy glass,
His heart lathered with alcohol.
How hard it must be to sleep soundly
Whilst walking on a shattered dream?

Her body lies in there, in there!
The crypt of their foundation for everything.
Everything but a new life.
Her womb is quiet with sorrow, like a graveyard.
At rest along with her spirit are her three children
Never to have explored their minds along with our
Cruel universe that has recently buried a new mound.

It matters not how much he drinks.
His tears can never be fresh rain
For his flower, and her garden by the graves.
The fields outside lay in cryo-sleep, waiting for
A new day of sunlight;
A new day to sustain cities all across the
Cruel universe, and its sick injustice!

And when she stirs, there will be silence.
Lives muffled, my seeds can never grow
In her garden alongside the graves, such fate the
Cruel universe provides us.

A serpent
Coiled itself behind me
While I was diligently working
At my desk, with blank expressions
Alone on a somber night.

He whispered in a ghastly voice,
“Follow me to paradise.
I shall lead you to the orchards
Where the freshest fruit blossoms;
The pulp as appealing as the rind.

Yes, the orchards are vast;
Almost like living in a sea
Where you cannot drown!
And all of mankind
Could dwell in such an organic sea!”

I asked if I could ever breathe there
The same way I breathe today.
I asked if my cleansing sunlight
Could ever reach me
At such depths if I went.

The serpent went mute
And slithered back into my pants,
Where it belongs in its jungle.

Lean forward
And **** the stain
From my shirt.
Use your tongue
To lap up my error
And my father’s error
And my ancestor’s error, too.

Pull my hair back
Like a Pez dispenser;
I’ll let you promenade
Down my jugular
In return, let this cube
From my rouge pint
Feel you, see you
Three-hundred and sixty
Degrees around
Peaks of flavor.

If my loving you
Is sinful, then let
These sultry demons
Pick at my *****;
Scorching its pinions
Asunder.

Let my soul
Plunge south
So I can rest
My dreary head
Under your shades
And your grass-patches

Let my hands
Reach north
To the sky;
Holding your ever
Radiant sun
So that I may love you
All morning and
All night long.

I want to
Break off both pieces
Of that wishbone.
And yet,
I want to keep them
In place together,
Still holding them;
Shaking along with you.

My wish
Has already been
Granted anyway;
I’m just greedy.
Enough to see
Where this surreal night
Takes us as we sway,
Lest we be killed
By the trembling masses
That crushes all our moments.

I sit still
Behind wispy brushes
That cast the gloominess away
Enough to admire the beauty
Of this fragile azure trinket.

I sit still alone,
Behind wispy brushes
That act upon others
As forbidden territory,
As a sanctuary that’s
Mine, and mine alone.

I sit so anxiously
Behind wispy brushes
Observing the trinket.
What I can never grasp,
Dwindles before me;
I have claws
For hands and feet,
And the limelight
Blinds what was meant
To be a humiliating secret
If I get close enough.

If there ever was a day
To be recorded in infamy;
‘Twould be the day where
Stars sought new homes,
Tigers grew coarse and *****,
And villagers incinerated
Every fiber of my being
Behind such dapper azure faces
As too, my darling
Dancing wispy brushes

-Juan Carlos Gomez