Warning: Some language not suitable for children.
"i hunger for the waves at night" Arts!Rolla Anthology 2004, first place poetry
Summary: Addiction is the damndest thing. (villanelle)
Excerpt:
i hunger for the crash of waves at night,
the pull of the moon in the star-white sky,
lost to the darkness and lost to the light.
i want the earth to tremble at its might,
taste salt, and, in the briny water, lie.
i hunger for the crash of waves at night.
"Before New York" Arts!Rolla Anthology 2004
Summary: You lose more with language than without.
Excerpt:
my teachers don’t care
that i can recite the
poetry from my
country in smooth
lines and images
until the listener
can taste the
guava, unripe
bitter
and filled with
seeds, hear
the snap
of the morcilla
sausage
cook somewhere
in the barrio.
"Oh, Sweet Youth, Flush With Misunderstanding" Consult Physician Before Use chapbook 2003
Summary: Sex is good for girls, too.
Excerpt:
they will never
know that it’s
just fine to want
to feel the touch
of hands, yours,
or someone else’s,
and that the
clitoris
is a holy shrine,
and that they
should always
be prepared
for the second
coming.
"Dust, or The Lack in the Eyes of the Elite" Consult Physician Before Use chapbook 2003
Summary: There is no flyover country in poetry.
Excerpt:
when you ask
“how can the children there
dream in mixed
words and loose
images when all they
hear each night,
from farmer-parents,
is that their jobs, lives,
the very land
they survive on
is worth nothing
to the world it feeds and
another promissory
note falls into
the red” I laugh at
you.
"dame un beso" Journey Literary Magazine 2003
Summary: Daddy sent me away, and the girl's gonna play.
Excerpt:
Fall at my feet you poor little man
My lycra lifted breasts,
Freed from Grandma-sweater coat black
Start a Mexican revolution with my nipples.
"Call of the Motorcycle at Night" Arts!Rolla Anthology 2001, best emerging poet
Summary: Things to do instead of writing poetry. (sonnet)
Excerpt:
Here I sit, open window at my right
Black monsters on two wheels belch greasy smoke
Roar their pleasure, escape into the night
Must join them beneath the stars, darkness’ cloak