there are many times

i would have liked to say i love you

yet the world keeps spinning

and i can not

Continue

what stops me

but my own stumbling

of being ashamed

as I am nothing

more than a mere reason

Placed

at your feet

HS

i've gathered my beloved
affairs; in unorthodox direction
magicians; my knees
djinn following closely
lovers
ripe with pomegranates
here, hold my stars
while I take another bite
of his delectable sword

HS

In the rose garden

where I drink my tea

the plants sing

the sky creates streams

light cast shadow

darkness never misses a beet

HS

The most beautiful sea

hasn't been crossed yet.

The most beautiful child

hasn't grown up yet.

Our most beautiful days

we haven't seen yet.

And the most beautiful words 

I wanted to tell you

I haven't said yet...

Nazim Hikmet 

1945

clouds burst
heavy dew
wetness
on my lips

liquid sunshine
fall mist
condensation
on my chest

HS

i can taste 

the moon

cold crater 

of you



HS

At dusk I can see myself alive
In your pupils
Floating inside the blue bands
The little piece of sky you keep hidden
As I take in your skin...your neck
Smells like the moisture on a dirt floor
After you carry the embers of this city
Under my covers
I unravel into a a million honest pieces
Watching you come towards me
because your nights climb my spine
and this bed is too big
For the rope that we wind

with my head in the ground

i listen to the

movement; the dark 

i need my conscious

to feel the way you lie  

beside me 

recessed by waves

(grey)

bound by glass 

(stone)

dignity  

i am the sea

capable of leaving

and instead choosing 

to be 

our breath of a gem

unmentionable

sweetened 

delicacy

closely 

i mind you

in the obscurity of protection 

i see the lover on your knees

i see the nectar hidden in your cheeks

i see the placement of your eyelids

that keep me safely

in positions reach  

arched 

hold me 

in the sky

heavens made of reason

undeniable

your aim  

   elegance is in the weak   

*  

your footing

captured 

my eyes

intwined

the tie between us

entangled

fastened to the other 

under obligation

of nothing

neither of us

resolve 

take

another

look

  

this will 

not become

until

you and me

catch each other

come further near

place yourself

within 

my nature 

*

HS 

i have learned to piece debris from whatever washes ashore to build driftwood and rocks into intricate gardens there are times i cry and sink roots although keeping my eyes close i am pragmatic and adept sacrificing that which rubs to snip away at these tangled love knots where new growth can flourish stretching from old scars i am surprised by the volunteer who suddenly appeared disrupting my orderly planting bed blooming his heart out

HS

when you look at me

stars erupt 

wind blown

a kingdom is built

larks frame 

mountains sway

shiver

tremor

stagger

heart batter

 be still. be calm.


HS

i speak once of steeping feet in the seven seas
of illuminating them there to oceanic
to create sheets of white luminous
so that their bodies will become edible
submerged in effervescent brilliance
make it so and skin turns a new
softening as you seep slowly in
as cells remember i forgive
so that we now immerse ourselves
apathy has nowhere else to sit
it will never requiem he repeats
though he still doesnt know
i often hear the same declaration
reversing in anothers simplicity
to luminescence my light...mirrored
as always breathing in his glare
i find my love transitioning clouds
waist deep in his inane
i vanish across blue fields
meandering the world
straying on the limniads edge
returning some times in time
for a door aching wide in the sky
and the moon setting free
played perfectly
in the neighbours tree
suddenly remembering
just how it all could be

My father walked me down to las posadas one calm winter night.

The fog was thick
And unable to see the stars
I quietly followed in.
Out of the duskiness
Appeared the familar
White lace shoulders and
Flickering lights.
Hands cusped in between ribs
Black hair settled on their backs
Tightly woven in a knot.
I remember the connection to our mother
Was stronger there than anywhere I had ever felt.
La Nuestra Senoras eyes gazed deeply around us
Against the dark nights
Their soft smiles
Gracious and enchanting
Hearty hearts of steel
I knew these people as
Warm
Willing
Weathered
By the storms of being dissipated
Blown into the winds of terror
A false divergence that made them illuminate ablaze
In contrast to the conservation of whiteness.

My grandmothers neighbor would come by
with a bag of tamales every so often.
Mass was held in the backyard
And I'd sit under the orange tree so that I could hear them speak in languages formed out of feelings
Sometimes they'd weep
Hold each others hands
in the lap of the other
Head draped on the families shoulder
There was a willingness
to carry the others heart
down to the river
and let it go.
Knowing that the same love
will always be carried within.
Even when we have lost sight of one another.

Snake skin and oiled hands
Chicano. Dark lips.
Chipped paint.
Earth scent ingrained.
Rough around the eyes
I still see her in each and every
Holy One I continue by.

Ella siempre sera mi luz en la oscuridad.

HS

I once heard a story of a girl who found her heart was placed so far from where she had left it. It seemed as though it had been picked up and carried to the farthest reaches of this earth where no one not just anyone would ever come across it. Here she was called following the eyes of someone elses light. Someone she could not reach. And here she found her heart in the hands of an undeniable belief.

 to the girl that welds in amber

 you are a love to be reckoned with
 a heart saturated with outspoken desires

 moonstruck

 on a belief of remembrance

 conceived in the coals

 validated by your ubiquity

 distributing itself

 here...
 and there

 broken up like a dream that was meant to be lived

 every moment has been marked by you

 every moment
 harnessed

 to take a step forward

 feel her
 winded

 death stays close
 while she sympathizes with the devil
 the way the world melts around her
 they bend into another
 his muscles still soften
 as she carries herself
 gracefully tied up in knots

 ***

 secured with luster
 reduced to embers
 set in fire

 continuously
 radiant
 midpoint

 eternally
 transmitting her story
 in the palm of my hand

I found your heart on the sidewalk early this morning
Dripping in the sweetest dew
I could not contain my excitement
For what a treasure to encompass
My own pleasure with


HS

levitate over the torso
induce the confusion like
asphyxiate
reciprocate

love for loves sake

conversations filtered like sand
stare;
analyze the eyes
don't just look
muse

try to figure out
why im the first one
discovered
at the end of every night

platform of love
I pull myself away from the edge

Tonight I want nothing more than to
slide beneath your hands
in this timeless universe
to smell your love upon my skin
while the ghostly hills pass
still waking at midnight
walking behind