Delicious Riddle

I'm wrapped up like a papoose,
With fronds like a palm.
As much salsa as Cuba,
Bursting with gondola-shaped
Chiles and tomato balloons.
Cream like sea-foam and a
Flurry dusting of cheese.

Grrrr

When the Grumpalumpagous comes to town,
Garrumphing on his way to the Galapagos Islands,
He is apt to be querulous and garrulous,
And greedy for gorgonzola and gobstoppers.
Beware his gaping, growling gullet, and even
More so his gruff and grouchy gossipmongering.

Bumble

Hours are made of bees
Droning by on stained-glass wings.
Humming and fizzing or
Whirring and wizzing,
Passing however they please.

Fiamille Nonnet

“Chirp chirp pio” say three little birds,

All day long, caring for an egg.

Dressed in each other’s feathers

At night they jump the nest

And fly to their fa-

Vourite fountain

To drink and

Chirp in

Style. 

Found Winter Nonnet

Feel the bone structure of the landscape,
The tendinous part of the mind.
For those with no warm memories
All of the winter through,
Luxuriating,
The sea runs back,
Furies fight
Unchained,
Roar.

Airport Haiku

Suspended in air,
My eyes contain a desert.
There's nothing to see.

Siesta Sevenling

Todos las noches duermo
Acurrucada, cobijada,
Y en tus brazos.

Me duermo sin querer y sueño
Con bailar, perderme en el tiempo
Y ser comida para dragones.

Duermo sin descansar.
-----------------------------------------------------
(Translation for mom and dad!)

Every night I sleep
Snuggled, bundled,
And in your arms.

I fall asleep unwillingly
To dream of dancing, time travel
And being food for dragons.

I sleep without resting.

Bunnet (o sea Bunny Sonnet)

A long wooly cloud has come down from the sky

To lie unpreoccupied upon the kitchen floor.

This mute cumulus creature bats nary an eye

Unless a creak issues forth from the door.

Then, taking it upon himself to curl up with the air

Of a crescent moon, his doe eyes look at one askant.

“If you have something nice it’s hardly fair,”

He seems to say, “To be as churlish as a cat.”

Candy or cracker,  salad or sandwich,

With his charm he takes whatever he can glean:

And polishes it off, bit, smidge or pinch

And flops back into the same spot, appeased.

Oh flocculent gourmand! Oh voracious ball of fuzz!

Now ever so much more corpulent than cumulus.

Anniversary Terzanelle

Hemos visto todos los días una vez.

Pan de muerto, pozole y ponche.

El amor no es lo que tu crees.

Recuerdo haber pensado, “No sé

Si algún día estaré satisfecho.

Pan de muerto, pozole y ponche.

Tomo las cosas muy a pecho.

Y mi imaginación me come entero.

Quizás algún día estaré satisfecho.

Me falta esperar lo que espero.

La tolerancia es una lección dura.

Y mi imaginación me come entero.

No sé si la impaciencia tiene cura,

Pero respiro y aminoro mi paso.

La tolerancia es una lección dura.

Te escucharé y tú ponte en mi caso,

Hemos visto todos los días sólo una vez.

Por eso respiro y aminoro mi paso.

El amor no es lo que tu crees.

Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee

"A people's dream died there"
In a mass grave in Tamaulipas.
Covered in a shroud of dew,
They seem to sleep, embracing.
Now they don't hear the whistle
Of the train, telling them it's time
To spend another day lying on
A speeding metal bullet under
An indifferent, foreign sun.
Now they don't shamble before
The coyote, hallucinating the sounds
Of the Pacific against the shore.
Now they know no thirst, hunger
Fear or hope. No one knows them
Either, nor in what dreams they
Clothed themselves before the
Last time they left home.

A Tour of the Calculus

"Here is the proof."
I saw it, so it can be seen.
I heard it, so it can be heard.
I felt it, so it can be felt.
Beyond this, I have nothing;
The possibilities for argument
Against its existence are infinite.
It cannot be said that this is a
Very pretty argument, but
It works.


*Still playing catch-up... Last week was thesis-filled!

Things that are the Most

"The silliest thing in
The world is a chicken
In a frog costume"?

Ha! Let zem sink it's silly.
I, Inspecteur Poulet, have
Bigger fish to frrry.

Ten dead frrrogs in as
Many days floating
Bug-eyed in the Rhône?

Zis is no laughing matter,
So assassin of frogs beware.
Zis birrrd always gets his man.

The heat is officially making me le crazy!

Holes

"'If only, if only...'"
Said the cow to the moon,
"I could jump that high,
We could make Port Salut!

I am ever so tired of a
Moon that is green.
I could fill up those holes
With thick, smooth cream.

I'd polish you up
With spring-fresh brine
To give you an orange
and edible rind.

Then hey diddle diddle
Back down to the farm.
To bask in your glow,
All coppery warm. "

1001 Pitfalls in Spanish

"Un murciélago. Los murciélagos"
No viven en un lago. Los lagos
Dan agua para un trago. Los tragos
Le gustan al vago. Los vagos
Siguieron al mago. Los magos
Se convertieron en un murciélago.
Los murciélagos...

Treasure Island

"Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight"
Are the only things that can bleach away
This black spot, and keep the deadlights
Off your eyes, ye blasted hornswaggler.
Ay, a hempen halter and chains'll be the
Only things ye'll wear for your wedding
Day with the Lady Catrina. Down a narrow
Wooden aisle ye'll jig at six bells with that
Lass on your arm to stand quakin' before
Jack Ketch. For a wedding feast a taste of the
Cat ye'll have,  and a keelhaul for a honeymoon.
Ay, scour the horizon for reales, doubloons,
Escudos, doits, moidores, and sequins.
For only these and George slaying the dragon
Can save your headpiece now.

Affy-Davy!

Un viejo que leía novelas de amor

"Sudaba sin descanso."
He imagines brooks feeding
Creeks feeding streams feeding
Rivers feeding oceans with confused
Whales pouring from his pores,
Stagnating in his belly button and
The insides of his elbows,
The backs of his knees,
Squelching between his toes
And pooling around his ankles,
Finally lifting him up,
Weightless, vaporized by the
Sun, leaving only a pillar of salt.

Now I'm all caught up on poems:D It's 90 degrees in Mexico. O sea, unseasonably warm!

El coronel no tiene quien le escriba

El amor no se come...pero alimenta."

Te espero en el café donde come el juez.

Pido nada más un café americano porque el estómago

Me brinca por no hacer más que pensar en ti.

Los galanes pasan por afuera del restaurante

Con las manos afuera de los bolsillos

Para poder rozar las faldas de las doncellas,
Que caminan con el poder que les ortorga
La inocencia. Caminan deslizando un pie
Tras otro, provocando olas con sus faldas
Que anuncian la llegada de otro verano en
El que esperaré tu llegada, hambriente y satisfecho. 

Fahrenheit 451

"As quietly as spiders"

The clock hands creep.

Not a sound has been 

Made for above half an hour.

Each smolders and seethes, 

Consumed by steam and smoke,

Waiting for their hearts to churn out

Enough fuel and rage for them

To finally combust. 

The Sound and the Fury

"...round eyes came out of the bushes..."
Yellow as heirloom squashes,
In a face as gray as the water
Under the pines in the Dismal Swamp.
Searching, scratching, snitching
Anything long and soft from the campsites:
Shoelaces, scarves, ponytails, appendages.
Spitting, skitting, flitting
From tree to tent and tent to toes.
Peeping, weeping, creeping
Up the cot, to the edge of the pillow.
Inhaling, railing, wailing
"I want my Tailypo!"

Persuasion

"Oh, he is black at heart, hollow and black!"
I  do not think these words quite fair.
Oh, I have enjoyed my share of fame and
Infamy over the course of my long life:
Messenger to Odin, first off the Ark,
A player in Macbeth and Othello.
And the Tower has been my home long
Enough to see many an Anne and a Jane.
Yet never has one interrupted me at my
Gallows-table to heckle me with such slander.
Would you blame a pig for loving filth?

Condemn a cat for craving mice?

You would not, would you?
I say, it's enough to drive one to go around
Croaking "Nevermore!"

Animalia

"Great green gorillas growing grapes in a gorgeous glass greenhouse"
Must handle their charges with maternal care.
Each grape that is picked is the result of a
Squinty-eyed, sweaty-necked, opposable-thumbed process.
Passersby often take bets on how the gorillas became green:
A flamingo-like effect from only eating grapes? Lack of exposure to outside air?
They only look green from outside the greenhouse?
A few brave souls have even tapped on the glass and tried to mime
To the gorillas in the hopes of solving the riddle.
But great green gorillas growing grapes in a gorgeous glass greenhouse
Must handle their charges with maternal care,
And do not have time for charades.

The Elements of Style

"20. Avoid foreign languages. It is a bad habit. Write in English." (For Diez Mil)

When we wake up we have café au lait
With a sinuate fractal of crème de menthe on top.
The leitmotif of wanderlust has permeated
Our dreams once again,
A momento mori that gives us pause.
For all the travelling, we seem to get nowhere.
Ni modo.

We bathe ourselves in mole, coffee and sugar,
Sing boleros and rancheras to the rabbit moon,
Make pictures with cempazuchitl petals.
For us, ennui is a fait accompli that cannot be outrun,
So we roll our r's and palatalize our l's
And comfort ourselves with the lingua franca that
Suits us best.



*Foreign phrases commonly used in English

Black Like Me

"The streetcar, with pale light pouring from its windows, rumbled to a stop."
Gingerly stepping down into the inky spaces between the gas lamps,
The drab-faced passengers began to resolve themselves into
Beings with edges less frayed, features less clouded.
No longer just foggy fellow farepayers of some great wheeled beast,
But individuals with sharp contours, and accompanying silhouettes.

The Grey King

"Hazy on the horizon all around,

The mountains lay like sleeping animals..."

The yawning openings of their caves steadily

Inhaling and exhaling a stream of birds

Whose caws and clicks and whistles

Were reminiscent of the sounds of a dozing lion,

Dreaming about wildebeest and warthogs.

Themetastic!

So...fearing lack of inspiration, I have decided that my poems this year will all begin with a line taken from a book. The title of each poem will be the book from whence the quoted line was taken. Huzzah!