Elephant trunk palms column, canopy claps hands
Undergrowth glad heart shape leaves spiral
Navigator vines map branches, brace boa banyan
Utile duenna diary with my duties conspiring
Chaperone rope binds silent beside my grand plan
Helpmaster holsters my faltering stride, hips squared
Essential weapon for war against mediocrity
Netted fruit bag binds ideas, ripe inspiration shared
Collaboration binges exchanges evocatively
Oversees growth, buffers fumbles, humiliation spared
Unbias advisor straddles drama, miniscule mosquitos
Raised beyond current, stilts lift clear of silt
Above ravaging river, twig leg log cabin cosy kudos
Guileless sunrise server castrates lumpy guilt
Enmeshed mirror wishes bud symmetrical smiling rose
Mentor each moment monitor prods my furtive dreams
Enlivens rainblur haze, unravels twisted maze
Narrows channel between now and zany zone supreme
Twines possible to present, pours zesty praise
Strengthened, gender invalid, my meridian self esteem
9th June
Carbonised Agenda
From my salty tears
Echoes of pain here
From my bitter taste
Troubles bind odd haste
From my acid tongue
Conflicts buzzing dung
From my careless streak
Silly substance tweaks
From my prison cage
Blind fear marks passage
From my poison deep
Damage castrates sleep
From my fallen place
Dreary doubting face
From my drama dread
Come plots walking dead
From my glimpses strange
Odd lines loiter change
From my weary slant
Lines of verse spice blunt
From my sorrow fresh
Floods plush poetic flash
Leon Enriquez
10 August 2018
Singapore
Modern Slavery, 2011
V. Ortiz Vazquez
Ivory black covered in crimson blood
Rhythm of fears hides his God like stand
Scared by his image, he castrates the family violating the house jewel
Jewels
Dreams of home a man’s song
Lyrics of hope cascades with every opportunity
Betrayed by those of his suit
Eyes shut, eyes open
Glimpse of a new life
Or so was the hope
Shackles gone or so it seems
Weight lifted or so it feels
Dragging
Caught in the web
Familiar, chameleon the perpetrator
Multicolor no longer neutral, white
Greed’s trap, your dreams
Twenty first century, invisible yet here
Weighted by my afro hair, big lips, brown skin, accent, womanhood
No lyrics of hope
Silently I write
Few safe ears listen, no questions
Wealth not within my reach
Distance, hazy, foggy “anhelos”
To break through
Struck down not once but twice by your greed
Or, my greed?!
Label me a woman, Latina, Spanish speaker, lesbian, sinner, working class
Shackled by your God like demeanor
Puppeteer is you
Puppet is I and those alike
Wearing the mark
Working class
Living for “migajas”
I watch the clouds slowly drifting,
The stars far behind,
I feel myself wishing,
As the wind rustles the pine.
A true love awaits,
But where to be found,
Heartache castrates,
A love so profound.
Dubious remorse dwells,
In a broken heart of thunder,
Lightening augments,
Morbid thoughts of wonder.
Where is the love,
Profoundly empty heart,
Languor in solitude,
As limpid water currents part.