Poetry:

Sergio Ortiz

 

Illegal #6

Otto Ambros, a Director of I.G. Farben, the company

that had a major role in producing the extermination gas used at Auschwitz received an 8 year sentence, commuted to a 3 years.



“Whip the eyes, but not in public. 

Take them to one of those migra jails

and beat the corn

out of their eyes,

we're making chimichangas

for dinner.”


The dream continued

I saw quills and parchments

turn their backs, like people,

on what was happening

in Arizona.  The dream shifted,

there were three men on a rock. 

Giant waves crashed against it,

the moon was present, Angels

in America were present.


Their fingers dug through the mouths

of three men rubbing their chins

against each other's abdominals. 

The Taino man got up and walked

toward the water, the Mulato followed

while the Mestizo  wriggled in the sand.


The dream went on, I saw Rita Moreno,

Dolores del Rio, and Chita Rivera

at the Iowa Review Awards. 

They were onstage with the three men,

and writers all across the country turned

to comfort ...


I woke up

at the beach reciting a poem

written as my celebration

of Miguel Hernandez's centenary.

Or, was I reading in the dream?




They Murmur


monster…    that’s what they think

they say i proselytize spinning

on the head of a needle


and are assured my erection intensifies

the color of my fur


they say i meddle around holes

and fistfuck them with urban dictionaries

i’d like to feel

something from them


perhaps that thing called

human warmth


BIO

Ortiz is a retired educator, poet, and photographer.  He has a B.A. in English literature, and a M.A. in philosophy.  Flutter Press released his debut chapbook, At the Tail End of Dusk, October 2009.  Ronin Press released his second chapbook, topography of a desire, May 2010.  Avantacular Press released his first photographic chapbook: The Sugarcane Harvest, May 2010.  His third chapbook: Wet Stones and Bedbugs in My Mattress, will be released by Flutter Press, November 2010. He was recently published, or is forthcoming in: Perceptions Magazine of the Arts 2010, BorderSenses, Cavalier Literary Couture,  and Touch: The Journal of Healing.

 

August 2010