Tag: United States

What if We Are the Same?

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This is a tribute I wrote to my mother who passed when I was an infant. When I share it in public, I still tear up after all these years…

 

“Oh, she died so young!”

Really?!

Who are we to tell?

Not one of us knows

Our day

Our time

Or even our very last hour

So isn’t that declaration a bit pompous?

What if it was her time?

I used to be sad

I used to lament

Oh si mi madre paso..

She was way, way too young!

 

What if perhaps she DID sing all of her songs

And didn’t leave any unsung?

What if she did complete her assignment by giving me life?

What if she made her exit

So I would have a grand entrance?

What if she walked off the stage

So I could be a strong voice for this age?

What if she did her last painting

So I could fulfill my purpose and destiny without fainting?

What if she held me close once

So I could hold others forever?

What if my cheek she one time caressed

So I could with my hands touch the oppressed and depressed?

What if she and I are one and the same?

She went before me

So I can forever her love proclaim….

EVA SANTIAGO copyright 2013-2014

 

 

Mami

 

 

 

Death is B-Rated

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Death is barely tolerated

Death is seldom celebrated

People cheat death everyday

No one ever claims they cheated life

Death is berated

Much akin to those poorly scripted b-rated films

Death is diminished

When it comes unexpectedly

Because some one’s life ended unfinished

An unfinished life:

Now, that’s such a truly sad tragedy

Unfinished

Unfulfilled

Unfilmed

Un…forevemore…

Un dreamed

Un done

Under lived

Under established

For all these reasons

And for probably a hell of a lot more

Death is barely tolerated

Death is seldom celebrated.

EVA SANTIAGO copyright 2013

 

A SCREAM WITHIN A DREAM

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A SCREAM WITHIN A DREAM

Loyal friend from Red Rock

Dumped her longtime partner in crime and billionaire

In Red Rock Canyon

She joked-waving away the praise,

” We’re just doing what we do here.”

Problem solver,loyal friend

Went her own way

Then returned to get involved

In gang crime spree

Marshalls  rushed in

To a dilapidated building in the middle of Death Valley

Sweltering in July

Hide out for The Vagos

Playground for The Bandidos

Home of the Wicked Riderz  on their green,mean machines.

 

All this she saw in her dream…

 

She  awakened to a howling wind

Saw a beautiful dark-haired girl in Mexico City

In the room with a balcony view

Gauze curtains flapping madly in the wind-to and fro

Her face twisted in pain-a macabre painting done with her own blood

The sky above a blood orange

And no one heard her bone chilling screams

As her lover stabbed her repeatedly

Her blood spattered the walls

While the wind cursed like the ghost of Pancho Villa

 

All this she saw in her dream…

 

The Vagos

The Bandidos

And The Wicked Riderz

Fantasamas maldiciendo miles de maldiciones – Phantoms cursing a thousand curses in the wind

Like the ghost of Pancho Villa

The dreamer awakened-confused, heart pounding, bemused-

Was it real or just a dream?

 

EVA SANTIAGO copy right 2013

Busy Mind # 15

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Preacher’s Kid

The preacher’s daughter

Quasi perfection

Like a Marlon Brando movie

Something  forbidden

A short ride

Ten miles out

He rode away

Leaving Chloe there-hurting,scared and ashamed

The product of unspoken pain

No money to feed another

Chloe wished to die

Tainted child-product of an evil act

Was Chloe a monster?

Her bottomless grief-a maelstrom of darkness

The pages fell shut

What time was it?

Time to go back

No more family secrets.

Eva Santiago copyright 2013

 

045

Altered Book: Family Secrets/Cheryl Zach

 

BUSY MIND #2

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IN PLAIN SIGHT

She met the curse of her lover’s eye. That day she’d never forget. Magdalena went from feeling safe in Pablo’s embrace to sleeping in the enemy’s arms. A chill pierced her being and she was heart-broken. Magdalena never knew love could crush with such an indomitable force. Once Pablo’s gaze melted her as gold in a furnace; now his eyes caused her to want to flee to the remotest part of the universe , as far away from his hateful, scornful glare. Magdalena knew things would never be the same since she saw his hatred for her there, in plain sight.

EVA SANTIAGO copyright 2013

 

April is National Poetry Month: Day 29

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And that was then…
When the past was dark and never to be seen again
All your dreams written in pen,
Because they wouldn’t listen.
This is now…
You have to survive a war to stand out
Do stunts that they won’t allow
You cannot have doubt
You won’t survive now..
Then
It was Death knocking at your door
Now
The sails of freedom come to shore
And then it was the sound of being condemned
Now we fight till the end
Because that was their time
But it is ours to shine
That was then..
and this,
This is now —

-Esther Star copyright 2013

 

April is National Poetry Month: Day 14

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MASQUERADE BALL

A man with everything

Always lacks some one

Don’t let ’em fool ya

People who brag about being some one-

Are usually no one

People who think themselves poor

Are actually quite rich

People who think they’ve arrived

Usually have a gazillion miles to go

People who think they shine

Are actually a galore of bore

People who think they’re hot

Are truly not

People who think too much

Do the thinking of the ones who don’t

People who think they are blind,

can actually see..if they so choose to.

People who claim they can’t hear-

Hear more than they let on

People who think themselves puny-

are usually the hidden giants among us.

People who think they’ve nothing to say-

Are the ones you wish would stay

People who think themselves mighty

Should see themselves first as lowly

People who think themselves dull

Are actually great beacons of  light,

leading ships into harbor

that have lost all their sight.

People who think themselves wise

Are usually the ones who fall for all their lies

Don’t judge a book by its cover?

Yeah, don’t be too quick to judge a man

Sit still in his presence

Soon you’ll see his true lover.

EVA SANTIAGO copyright 2013