Sunday, July 21, 2013

Day 196 of the 365 Days of Blogging

The author, Dane F. Baylis

LET'S MAKE SOME EXQUISITE NOISE

 
As promised yesterday, for the next several days I will be featuring some of the incredible poets who have appeared in ASKEW POETRY JOURNAL, Issue #14. As they say in baseball, at the top of the order, our first batter will be F. Albert Salinas. Albert, as he goes by, is an intense, passionate voice with all the music and pain that is associated with Latin culture in this country. I have no doubt you will enjoy this selection and will see far more of him in the future. Albert's poem "MOSCAS" will be seen here as the featured article for the next three days and then archived in the YOUR WORK/YOUR LOVE section of this blog. With no further introduction and my deepest appreciation:

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F. Albert Salinas

 

Moscas
By F. Albert Salinas
 
Cholitas with blue eye shadow and Aqua Net hairdos
threw chingasos— tore each other’s clothes off
for everyone in the barrio to see. A nipple
the size of the small tortillas my grandma made
with left over flour flopped out from under a yellow tube-top.
The girl with the gold cross necklace retaliated and
two quarts of café con leche spilled out of a black bra.
There were sharp smacking sounds like the ones my grandma
made working masse for tamales Christmas Eve. It was summer.
Tiny beads of sweat gathered on the dim mustache
of the girl with coarse hair on her arms.
  
Their perfumes covered the smell of garbage collected
in the sidewalk gutter. They bit into smooth shoulders.
Mascara smeared onto the others’ skin, brown lipstick
onto each others’ necks. A Vans tennis shoe flipped off
one of the girl’s feet as she stumbled back.
She stayed on the ground with her open hand out
in front of her face to keep the other girl away.
One of her earrings was torn out of her ear, and
she heaved for air, panted.
 
I’d seen my mother lying in front of my father on the floor
in this same defense and then I remembered what it felt like
when I wanted to melt into the ground rather than be hit again,
so I reached out to help the girl up from the ground,
but all she did was cover her exposure with her forearm.
Someone from behind told me to stay out of it,
so I backed away and for a moment I wished
I had never seen her nakedness.
 
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Meanwhile, as always...live, love, write.
 
 
Want to follow or subscribe to this blog? There are gadgets for that on the right side of the page. You can leave comments in the form below. I can be reached directly at dbaylis805@gmail.com . You can also find links to some of the sites I visit from time to time on the right. I'm also looking for submissions to the Your Work/Your Love page. Authors retain all rights.
 
 
Tomorrow,
 
Dane F. Baylis
Author.
 
 
 



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