The Last Photo with My Father

At the threshold of the sitting room
Standing
On the only stair that separates the door and the floor
The device snapped

The father, his amaranth red bubu
The son, his navy blue
The earth, its ocher twilight
And two flowers on the right

A door opens into the darkness
To the left

Between my father and me
Physical contact never meant affection

It’s sacred to touch the other
For him
Touch serves three verbs
To pray. To heal. To magnify.

In the last photo with my father
His hand on my back
Was therefore …

We Are Part of Those Who Keep Wake

We will keep wake up until the boundaries of insomnia
We will not sleep
We will pluck out the eyes of drowsiness
We will pull the bed away from naive …

A Storm Like No Other

What storm is brewing
With the falling of dead stars
That lie along these alleys of sea foam?

Suicidal waves
Rise and crash
Into the throat of a gaping gulf
Which …

Hot Stepper at the Gates of Hell | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Hot Stepper at the Gates of Hell

 

who now pleads with the ancestors
seeing with naked eyes the gates of the dead

who now sees the impossibility of life
finding at last the answer to the question

and wonders …