We stroll the barrios of sweet Madrid
A world of ill concern thus wafting by
Reflections of the day alight your eye
Still here we are alone amidst a crowd
The only two attentive souls on earth
A wistful world of introspective worth
You nip a glass of absinthe patiently
The drops upon your lips to tantalize
I kiss it off and taste with open eyes
To flit your tender lashes with my own
A deep and secret pleasure I obscure
I watch you as I kiss, lids so demure
I muse to what you ponder, lids so tight
Whene'er our mouths meet, is it fantasy?
Oh, do your dreams rest on exactly me?
The market spins about us, silly fools
To sew its charm romantic, once again
Two rascals mad in love ... in sunny Spain.
~ 1st Place ~ in the "As Easy As A-B-B" Poetry Contest, Nina Parmenter, Judge & Sponsor.
~ 1st Place ~ in the "Standard Contest 160 Any Form Any Theme" Poetry Contest, Brian Strand, Judge & Sponsor.
Scenarios of Barrios
What we all saw were many scenarios,
Of urban poor areas known as barrios;
A pitiful sight,
Day and night;
Each one on Sundays to church goes.
Jim Horn
There is no envy
of where we live:
rundown apartment complexes,
dangerous housing projects.
Poorly zoned business districts
whose warehouses cut through our landscape
like the tombstone's of giants,
sitting tagged and vacant
from a boom that never happened.
We are a single community
divided amongst ourselves;
a dozen or so quarter mile barrios.
Each fiercely guarded
by angry, misguided youth.
They bleed to protect something
that’s worth absolutely nothing
for reasons hardly above reproach.
This is the land of concrete and graffiti;
broken knuckles and broken hearts;
the place where flashes of light
break the night and sometimes,
we die.
This is the crazy west side,
the youth wrecker,
the damager of all who dwell.
This is home, where the guns go off.
I'm crying out with these emotions that i'm can't explain
I'm crying out with two emotions in my heart,my sadness,and my pain
My tears flow out like a river fall into an endless ocean
My mind feels like its at war with my emotions.
Can you see my tears as they flow out
Can you see the pain in my eyes
Can you understand the pain I'm suffering from
Can you hear me asking why
I'm crying because of the world's ever escalating malice
I'm crying because of the news always showing victims of murderers and rapists
I'm crying because seeing so many deaths.
I'm crying because of seeing innocents breathing their last breaths
I'm crying because of people dying on the street corners
I'm crying along with the other mourners
These tears are for those who've died in wars,barrios,and ghettos
Even though we it was their time to go
I'm crying because the the pain will never go away
The tears will never disappear
All i can do now is pray
And that people can see this black youth's tears
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.