Heartbreak of Blasphemy (a parable mashup)

 --
          There was not much rejoicing in his father's house when the Prodigal returned home from his wild years in the big city. His was a hard-working, strict family and many hopes pinned on him as firstborn had been dashed-- or, to some moralizing, judgemental eyes, shamefully corrupted.
           He was given the chance to redeem himself by working shoulder-to-shoulder with the fieldhands. On his first day out, during the noontime rest, he found an ancient olive tree he would climb as a child, and, at its root, buried two silver Talents he had salvaged when he realized he had no alternative but to tuck tail and return home to face the consequences-- whatever those might actually be.
           He could not keep up with the work. Never strong to begin with, the years of dissipation had sickened and weakened him further. The laborers-- embittered by long indentures to a stingy, ambitious man-- found a sweet measure of revenge in relentlessly mocking their lord and master's weakling son.
           In the end, he found his place among the house help-- mostly working with the women in the kitchen. Awkwardly at first, but with developing assurance and the growing satisfaction in discovering a sense of purpose, he ended up finding no task so simple or menial he could not enjoy applying whatever measure of skill he could bring to its careful execution...
   
         (...to be continued?)

Terminal Islander

 --
what manner of support is there to be begged
from the transactional family estate of late capitalism

that feeds off the disaster
experiment in collapsed colonial paradise
singing oh! my heart's devotion (oh! dembow-shun)
still unheard against a raging flood?

reaching end of shelf life
all efforts evidence examples crushed
discarded ashes to ashes in our dumpster fire?

is this a tightrope o una cuerda muy muy floja
sobre la cual Karl Wallenda und Ich
perdemos el balance?
--

Placebo Lesson Two

--
everyman poison soaks
four blank insomniac walls
to self-medicate sharp-angled
isolation forward, flat

grating discomfort in unquiet fixity
will not help put a body's affairs in order
--

Placebo Abuse

 --
four blank insomniac walls
of everyman poison to self-medicate
sharp-angled isolation forward, flat

grating discomfort of unquiet fixity
will not help put one's affairs in order
--

Lo Menos Internalizable

 --
contra buche y bronquio
entre ceja y ceja
sólo me cabe orar soñando
el deseo de un milagro endógeno a la poesía analítica
en estricta correspondencia
con la carga de metáforas que me hieren
desde su oculta necesidad de atención y cuidado
--

Illness as Metaphor

 --
over seventy windblown years
tied to the mast patience has eluded me
leaving me to hum along the shrillest
siren call in grating irritation

struggling to find or develop
a minimal measure of discernment
to catch my breath one breath
between the healing itch the mending pain
and the vicious nag of wounding aches

might say my suspicious mind
dove for a dark, silty bottom
and found the drain unclogging gratitude
or trust to sluice & flush a pressured dram
of bittersweet relief
--

Moonset/Moonrise, en playero

 --
ocaso y otoño destilan
falsa sonrisa de escarcha
pálido gajo de limón
que se hunde hacia la medianoche
del horizonte entintado
sin despejar el remojado peso
de miasma y bochorno
como tatuaje profundo del trópico

AH que la luna demorara
y se tomara una vida de noches en menguar
y así desde su horizonte levantino
iluminara con su reduciente reflejo
las deambulantes medias noches
que definen Esquizofrenia Portorricensis
--

Ars Poetica: Power Out

 --
             -ante un apagón de poder (power outage)
               para un año nuevo de sombra

 vacía de significado, insignificante
libertad honestamente radical
aún y tal vez especialmente
al notar marcar simbolizar su desarraigo

¡Terco propósito!
de reflejar la nada y el vacío

Vocación de fracaso
auténtica por intractable

Sucia Magia

 --
a esta edad avanzada
cómo recuperar la sucia magia
de pieles abultadas que se frotan
para encender llamas comunicantes?

nunca bien aprendida
por muy mal estudiada
entre vergüenzas contradictorias
--