Spanish Lessons

[~Sophia~]

Spanish Lessons

Here

I watch mocking girls (royal palms with
mocha fronds) fold decaying cocks into
foaming merengue thighs, the caustic
ingredient for American pie and wonder
who God confesses to

on this pastiche island of tropical fevers,
false starts and disarming children that
fledge from bellies swollen by poverty
and profiteers.

Where the execution of butterflies set
a nation free to pin its hopes and
laundry on miles of corroded
barbed wire

and fingers twisted as mangrove roots
reach into your misconceptions to offer
their last chicken

I am learning

la forma arrogante mi vida ha sido

How arrogant my life has been

[Virgil]

Another solid poem Sophia. I am marveling on your openning line line "Here/I watch mocking girls". What a cool pun (alluding to dancing girls). It really adds to the poem's theme. Nicely done.

[~Sophia~]

Thanks a bunch Virgil. Have you been down here? I wasn't sure it would be clear.

[PrinceMyshkin]

It's your characteristically strong, vivid detals - like arrows of fire - that make the poem, that and of course your strong social conscience,

[~Sophia~]

Hi Prince. Thanks again for your generous words. I realize a lot of my poems are not very pretty but (at the least) I hope they give the reader a reason to pause.

And you didn't think I'd let the day slip by without shouting :bday_2: !!!!!!!!!!!!

[PrinceMyshkin]

Hi Prince. Thanks again for your generous words. I realize a lot of my poems are not very pretty but (at the least) I hope they give the reader a reason to pause.

And you didn't think I'd let the day slip by without shouting :bday_2: !!!!!!!!!!!!

"Pretty" is an interesting issue vis a vis poetry. Some of the dictionary definitions I just looked up


1. pleasing or attractive to the eye, as by delicacy or gracefulness: a pretty face.
2. (of things, places, etc.) pleasing to the eye, esp. without grandeur.
3. pleasing to the ear: a pretty tune.
4. pleasing to the mind or aesthetic taste: He writes pretty little stories.

are indeed what most of us mean by "pretty" and what some of us expect of poetry or graphic art and of course pretty and truthful, stirring, provocative need not be mutually exclusive but I for one would go for the latter three any time rather than pretty.

[~Sophia~]

Prince, I guess that is what I hope most readers prefer. Thanks again!

__________________________________________________

Hello Joseph. Nice to meet you. Yes of course it is my poem. I'm wondering why you would ask? This thread is for personal poems. If I were to quote someone else's I would credit them and, likely not do it on this thread unless there was a very valid reason. I would post it to another category of poems.


it's vivid, has a tropical fever of its own - a sense of claustrophobia and sunshine.

I live in the Dominican Republic... it is a fevered island. Thanks for reading and your comments!

[~Sophia~]

Joseph, now you have me completely confused (which isn't all that difficult). I don't live in Argentina, I live in the D.R. and have never been to Argentina either. Also, I'm an expat and while my first cohesive sentences were not in English, it is what I would consider my first language. (I was first born in Canada of immigrant parents) but all my schooling was English. Whew, hope that clears things up.

ps: and I guess if you were to say I have an accent, it's Canadian. I am however taking Spanish Lessons. Hence the Spanish in the poem.

[~Sophia~]

LOL, no worries Joseph, the net is complex and I'm scrambled pretty often myself!

[~Sophia~]

I'm posting this new poem on an old thread so that it's not copied to the Arabic site. Apparently their RSS feed only takes new works.

__________________________________

Loft For Rent

It’s warm here in the attic
Jacob’s ladder makes a fine fire - white ash
and sometimes a moving van comes
with chi cleaners and interior designers

Mamzelle, a smeared Paris is seeping thru
the lunette. Muddy river, muddy stars, the
awful tower - a diffused specter wringing
suns in a vague cinnamon and this
impossible hazel colour

ah look... a curio chest, inlaid with little carvings

My Frida & Friends doll collection!
Stretched and stitched piñatas complete with bloodstained
lingerie, nightsticks and accessories. They can’t take those.
No. They can’t have them so

I Morse - mnemonic deep-throat Hottentot clicks;
the parsed dreams you exhale when you sleep

in a hologram,
the outsiders listen with tympanic thighs, light
votives, hold hands in circles ...

I can’t understand why they don’t understand
(the ptks and xsts are so plain,

plain as the Jane on my face)
and the moving van goes

I think it’s the volume that disturbs them.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Wonderful how you combine your deep passion, unfettered imagination and


I can’t understand why they don’t understand
(the ptks and xsts are so plain,

plain as the Jane on my face)


the occasional bit of off-handed humour, the white spot that highlights the darkness of the bulk of the poem.

[~Sophia~]

Thank you PrinceMyshkin. There is a little light and dark in all of us!