Long Cantina Poems

ANOTHER DAY IN THE MINE
by
JOHN M. ARRIBAS
	


I woke up this morning with a pain in my back
From a cold wind blowing in through a crack
I sleep with my little brother and he hogs the blankets
What...

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I had fallen in love with a young Mexican maiden in the town of El Paso
Completely mesmerized by her eyes had me following her wherever she would go.  In 
Rosa’s Cantina, the music would...

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Como’ Si’ Yama’, Senor’
Como’ Si Yama’, Por Favor’…
… for Below That Embroidered Sombrero’
Shone Eyes Like El Dorado

He Was A Tall and Handsome Hombre’
Like The Range of Sierra Madre’
…Now, He Sat Center The Cantina
Surrounded by Bonita...

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He drifts into town on his 
faithful quarter horse called Moose 
who has a three-legged gait 
which gives him saddle sores 
when riding miles from place to place. 

A desert wind storm hits them hard,
he...

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He drifted into town
on his faithful quarter horse called Moose
who had a three-legged gait 
which gave him saddle sores
when drifting from town-to-town.

A desert wind hit them hard,
he pulled his cowboy hat further down his face
so...

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Continued From:
8. Catherine McCarty Part 2
http://www.poetrysoup.com/poems_poets/poem_detail.aspx?ID=195846

****************************************************************************
 
Congratulations Billy
 
There was the usual exchange of foul words and light shoving around,
but then "Windy" rushed Billy and threw him down to the ground.
He sat on Billy's chest...

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Speaking Spanish wasn't easy for a gringo like me, but I had no choice. I was playin' cards and drinkin' Mezcal at a nowhere bar in El Paso. I didn't have any money in my...

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Folks avoid that spooky place 'specially on dark and stormy nights!
Heard are eerie moans and shrieks and seen are mysterious lights!
A driftin' hoss thief by the unlikely name of One-Eyed Buck LaHore,
Was strung up on...

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That disheartening obsession
is detached from reality
Another retinal wink message
blinks SOS pillow bleak

Drifting off to sleep,
void dreams of awakened passion
falls into an impotent abyss
The empty anesthesia bottle,
caressed by a pained heaving chest,
has swallowed all of yesterday’s...

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Sand Bar


"Your focus determines your reality." —Qui-Gon Jinn

Witnessing an
amazing low-tide
phenomenon,
as if a walkway to
a parallel world
has suddenly appeared,
extending one-half mile
from East Beach
out to sea

People are slowly
gathering, walking, stopping,
stooping, staring in silence,
speaking softly—
I'm as eager
as Simon...

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Down in the town of Nuevo Laredo
The riders of Don Carlos came:
They kidnapped a captive to take to their leader,
And sweet Armaline was her name.

And I had to run,
I hadn’t a horse or a gun,
I...

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Come along now she'd say to me and then together we would knead 
two strong arms and a floured face, this woman had love and speed 
It was Christmas Eve, and I will never forget...

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Emerging from the shadows of the mission’s broken wall,
The moon falls on her shoulders like a ghostly silken shawl.
She wears a chain of silver and abalone shells.
Her eyes as bright as emeralds, her voice, like...

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The band's trumpeting out the Bose 
A dozen red roses for thirteen chicas 
In that old cantina
Looks like one's left cold
But it's colder still out that
Crooked oval door
As Jorge keeps 'em entertained
With his liquid tambourine...

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The past is a thought.

The coastal fishing town in Peru was charming
its upland was bare and light brown, with roads 
looking like scars caused by a triple Bye-Pass.
The sky was enormous, the biggest ever seen
but...

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A strong wind blows across the Texas sand,
As the sun is sinking low in the sky.
Three men ride into the town of Laredo,
In the distance you hear a coyote's cry.

Ponies hitched outside a Cantina,
Inside is...

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I am now thinking of taking this my gal on drive to shop
fine Temecula with stores and antique shops to buy goods from.
We'll step an aisle soon of Granny's narrow walk and find there some
singular,...

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Behind the thunder and the lightning
hides a ghost, so fair but fright'ning; 
the Ghost of lovely Felina 
who was a dancer in Rose's cantina.

She left her hometown of New Mexico 
to find her fate in...

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It  is a hot afternoon at Pancho's Cantina
And Rosa is sitting at the bar, mariachis singing
Cause the juke box is dead
She is the red rose in Pancho's Cantina
There is no telephone, so you can't...

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Orion arisin
on the horizon
at five o'clock
in the morning.

Canyon walls still protect
the midnight dark. 
Above them the crescent moon
plays tag with Venus, 
followed by a lightning sky,
birthing a brand new day.

I walk on feet still too...

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Summer sky sparkles under huge bursts of light
Spiraling rockets and rainbows of color delight
Kiddie rides and merry-go-rounds spinning around
While roller coasters lift one high off the ground
Vendors sell hotdogs and pink cotton candy galore
Even if...

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Mexicans make many things,
but the best is tacos,
bull-fighting is kinda cool,
not as cool as tacos.

Cheese and chips and refried beans,
folks put them in tacos,
awesome spices in the meat,
the soul of the taco.

You can buy them...

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My mule is intelligent, and it loves me.
perhaps it loves everybody,
it's a rental.

I need a shot of confidence.
The mule rests its head on my shoulder.

It's a well-travelled track
but today I have met no one.
I should...

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A gauche gaucho, 
a galoot,
rawboned and grizzly, 
rode into 
a snoring border town.

"Google me," he said, 
as he hitched his mare to 
a wild hair.

The cranky cowhand 
had gambled on 
an internet cantina being open...

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A gauche gaucho,
a galoot,
rawboned and grizzly,
rode into
a snoring border town.

"Google me," he said,
as he hitched his mare to
a wild hair.

The cranky cowhand
had gambled on
an internet cantina being open
but the only horse in town
had been gridlocked...

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