Curious Courting

How curious.

I forgot where I was.

One forgets to turn with or against.



Behind raw iron icy bars,

I want to say all of this is true.

How long I yearned,

For the Lord of Death with icy breath.



Loitered beneath the gas lamps’ flare,

Like little painted figures on a screen

And still, to strive anew, we turn away.



I feel faint kisses creeping on my lips,

He, with his gentle hand,

His eyes were clear as crystals.



Together, away, we step



And to dreamworld pine away.

Things I Didn’t Know I Loved

Things I Didn’t Know I Loved

Emulating Nazim Hikmet

By: Josephina Garza

It’s 2020 April 3rd

I feel my skin crawl and my walls move in,

I’ve been playing chess for 9...10..11

Maybe more days to come

I never understood how to shut myself away

I need fresh air

            To feel it across my arms and face

I need laughing

            Children, mother, father, fiancé

I need family

            A break spent shut away

I need home

            A warmer bed, with blankets piled high

And yet here I sit

            Computer propped open

                        Cursor mocking me as I wait…

It can't really be that much longer

Can it?

The wait for kisses so rough

Laughs so full 

Ideas so complicated

            They fill this little room and

                        Slip out of open windows

Only for reality to set in…

I took for granted things grander than four walls

I need wings

            Something yummy other than sandwiches

I need movies

            Popcorn and dark rooms with strangers

I need animals

            A dog...maybe a cat...hell I want a ferret

I need a tattoo

            To scratch the itch at the back of my leg

                       

But again, I sit and wait it out

            Held captive by fear

                        Strangled by news

It can't really be that much longer

Right?

My roommate watches as I wrestle

My roommate laughs as I whine

I fight against the itch

            But would it hurt to

                        Open the door 

To step outside and take a deep breath

I feel my skin crawl and my walls move in,

I’ve been playing chess for 12...13...14

Maybe more days to come

It’s 2020 April 4^th now

To Sit and Watch it Burn

To Sit and Watch it Burn

I’ve lit the world on fire,
                I’ve laid our lives down…
                                I’ve decided to watch it burn.

With a single strike,
                a flurry of keys,
                                I dropped the match and sat back.

Together we will sit,
                Together along the curb,
                                We’ll watch our world burn.

Hold my hand,
                Squeeze it tight,
                                Understand that nothing can hurt you.

I hold no regret,
                you shouldn’t either,
                                I am the only culprit.

Traditions laced in blasphemy,
                happiness dripping in sarcasm,
                                Faith lifted by anarchy.

Oh, sweet children,
                oh sweet life,
                                gather round and stay warm.

I’ve lit the world on fire.
                I’ve laid our lives down…
                                Poured gasoline upon the skeletons.

Sun kissed and Gnarled

Sun kissed and gnarled

Her hands are the piece of her that
I remember the most.
Hands that had seen so much,
tending to gardens,
gone once she left us.

Raising children,
Two girls complete opposites,
a boy so spoiled.
Grandchildren and great.

Hands that blessed the unknown,
crossing our bodies and houses,
chasing away the bad juju.
Wrapping us up in faith,
Driven by a fear of the unknown.

I feel her hands on mine,
pressed tight,
tracing the lines of my own.
Gnarled from use,
battered by life,
gone.

Emulating A Small Needful Fact

Name

Name

They shaped it different
Replaced a letter, added another.

Later,
as I grow. I hate it.

Why can’t I be fluid,
graceful as all the other children.
Or rough and straight forward.

It’s the pause in attendance,
the look of panic and a trill of dreed.

All we have is our names.

Mine is a mix of letters,
a jumble of sounds, all mispronounced. 

Later,
as I figure it out. I still hate it.

I’m knobbed kneed,
awkward as any teenager.
Loud and unapologetic.

It’s the giggles in the back,
the whispers of a bigoted room.

All I have is her name.

I honor the story,
correct the sounds.

Later,
When I figure out me. I accept it.

I’m a talker,
no nonsense as adults get.
Proud and amazing.

I protect it now,
stop the mistakes before it continues.

All I have is my name.

Fire and Chaos

Fire & Chaos

Emulating Nature

I am uncontained and destructive. I’ve created
for years only to destroy the unseen. Siphoning the
air and cultivating the deranged. Corralling inhibitions,
foregoing logic, breathing in the hallucinations,
discharged by anarchy.
Byproduct of the lost and lonely. Feeling twisted into...
Into the children born of blood and ash. Caressed and loved,
fire in my veins, so hot, so wild, so undeniably mine. Forever,
embracing and building. No order, no water, no triggers to…
To hold me down while the world becomes mine.
I will forever be fire and disorder.  The pyre wrapped in chaos.
Let those that stand in the way, understand. You are complete.
Once the sparks have taken, once the mayhem has taken root,
all that stand before you, will become consumed.
I shall stand and hold them out, left licked and kissed by hearth,
right disheveled by laws left open. I shall offer you what is necessary.
We all must become. We do not burn alone. We consume and grow.
In Fire & Chaos.
In Rage & Turmoil.
We shall rise together. We shall never be alone.

Field of Dreams

Field of Dreams

Emulating Eye of the Tiger

ACT 1, SCENE 1

JOSE AND JOSIE. SIT ON THE BLEACHERS OF DAVIS BASEBALL FIELD.
HIS EYES TRACK A BUG WHILE JOSIE WATCHES THE SKY.
A FEW STARS SHINE.

JOSE: If we decide, we can become them.
JOSIE: I don’t wanna becomes them, I want to capture them.

JOSE CHUCKLES AS HE WATCHES HER FOR A MOMENT.
JOSIE’S CLOSES HER EYES AND SHE LEANS BACK.
THE COOL AIR CARESSING THEM BOTH.

JOSE: Ten years down the line we’ll fight. It will be so bad I’ll lost site of what it means to be us.
Josie: But it sounds like we’ll be together down the line. Probably when ten years turn into twenty.

JOSIE OPENS HER EYES AND LOOKS DOWN AT THE ABANDONED FIELD.
GRASS GROWS ALONG THE BASES; THE CHALK LINE TORE UP AND FADED.
CATCHERS GEAR LAYS OVER HOMEPLATE DUSTY AND BROKEN.

JOSE: When I start to hate you, when you decide we are no longer the same. I hope you remember it was you that decided. Said that we could no longer play this game. I want you to understand what kind of turn around this will cause you. If you lose me…then what are you?
JOSIE: I will be stars. I will be something out of this world. I will be hated and loved. I will be lost among the masses not understanding the…

JOSE STANDS AND MOVES DOWN THE BLEACHERS. HE LOOKS UP AT HER AND HOLDS HIS HANDS OUT WIDE. THE FIELD BEHIND HIM DISAPPEARS AND HE TURNS TO LOOK OUT, OUT AMONG THE STARS.

JOSE: Significance of yourself. Of how much you’ll grow, how much you’ll suffer. In thirty years’, time, I will hold my hand out again and hope that you take it.  Hope that one day we’ll be one again.
JOSIE: Then I hope when that day comes…I won’t be so scared to hold your hand again.