how do you truly win in life?

All this time spent
struggling against
dreams

a goddamned life time

He'd fall asleep
and the darkness that fell
around him would
manifest as
one being
that would hold him
tight in her
embrace and bite
at random from his flesh
and tear
until there'd be nothing left
but pure pain

Darkness
was the world

And the world was dark
because he had
labeled it such

Darkness...

Enlightenment then
comes when one is able to
emerge from the darkness,
to leave it behind, to
win over it

Or so it is
thought

But those who are truly
enlightened know
better, don't they?

You cannot possibly win a fight

It's just not how
it works

Your decision to fight
the darkness
or anything else
is your decision to fight yourself
and yourself alone

Thus you lose even if
you win

So then how do you
truly win in life?

Well, have you
ever thought about
not fighting in the first place?

To fight with the world,
be it the real world or
the world of your dreams,
is to fight with yourself

Stop hitting yourself
in the face!

And maybe start
embracing yourself?

Do so with the world

And what do you think?

Will you not find that
the world replies with the exact
same treatment?

I believe that's what he did
in his dream world
too
The next time the world turned
into pure darkness
and came to eat him
he just offered himself to it
instead of trying to run away, hide
and fight back

The result

was nothing short of
amazing

That I guarantee
Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "how do you truly win in life?"!

Check it out HERE!

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B09C46RMPS/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=96628550-28a0-4f19-9a78-7717f0614bbd&ref_=ap_rdr

Thank you!

you are empty

this Saturday
he wakes up in the
afternoon
and
curses his dreams

Goodness, how long
has it been
since the last pleasant
dream?
What about the last
nightmare?

Even nightmares were
better than
what he was having now

A void
a nothingness

empty

Which does remind him of
an older day when he
used to play some
videogame titled
‘You Are Empty’
on big bro’s computer

fairly good times
with nightmares that were
better than dreams of
nothingness

The game, horror though it
had been, did not give him
nightmares

big bro did

"Since you wanna play so hard,"
big bro had said, "we gon’ make
it more interesting.
Every time you die,
Perro gets the can!"

Perro was the little parrot
dad got him
before going away. It stood
in a small cage in
the hallway

and the can… It was
a can of bug spray big bro
used to spray the
poor thing with
when he was in a sadistic
mood
which happened too often

Mother was away
at work
or in the company of some
new man she was
trying to convince to
become a stepfather

She had very little
success with both. With
everything.
And she was tired.
At all times.

Big bro had all the power in
the house
so how could he not
abuse it?

It’s just normal to
abuse power
when you have it

The miracle is when
you don’t

but there are no
miracles

So Perro got sprayed
a lot

And got sick a lot
but didn’t die

His feathers fell off
and the scales of his
little feet
peeled off and looked
like boiled corn flakes

yet still
death would not
take him

Abused creatures have
their own way
to spit back into the
face of their abusers

It’s for this very reason that he
decided today
to make another visit
to his big bro in prison

Maybe even buy
something
nice for him
Many thanks to Gobblers by Masticadores for featuring my poem, "you are empty"! 

Check it out HERE!

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B09C46RMPS/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=96628550-28a0-4f19-9a78-7717f0614bbd&ref_=ap_rdr

Thank you!

beer mixed with tequila

I felt it in the
side
as I woke up

some kind of cold
claw scratching
gently, playfully at
my ribs

I blinked a few times
and turned to her

“Hey!” she said. “Get up
and buy me some
beer with tequila.”

I opened my mouth
and she immediately covered
it with her claw. “Not
separately,” she said.
“I mean beer mixed with
tequila. There’s gotta be
some brand like that. Look
for it.”

“Who’re you?” I asked

“Just another one of
them, dear. I don’t
care what you name me. Let’s
just go get that mix
of beer and tequila. See, it’s
not exactly a cocktail. It’s
more of a beer, like, in
a can, but it says on
the label that it’s
mixed with tequila. Uh,
something like that.”

One hour and some
minutes later I’m in the
supermarket
and I spot a girl that
looks exactly like
her
minus all the
non-human features
like that claw and the sharp
teeth

So often it’s the things
you think least of
that
are the most beautiful

We’ve been tricked into
liking supermodels
and superstars and all
the TV people and
influencers

meanwhile
gods and demons alike
bow their heads in shame
when they look at
your local grocery store
cashier

How in the hells
and heavens alike can
some people be so
pretty, so gorgeous
I’ll never know…

Well,
anyway
let’s get that
beer and tequila mix
real quick

I wanna enjoy it
with her
while we write some
dark poetry

Life is
good
Many thanks to Gobblers by Masticadores for featuring my poem, "beer mixed with tequila"! 

Check it out HERE!

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B09C46RMPS/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=96628550-28a0-4f19-9a78-7717f0614bbd&ref_=ap_rdr

Thank you!

I pass by him and observe

yeah, he’s past that
age where
men put up fake smiles
to be liked
and to fit in circles

I think he’s in his
early
forties

Good man

works all day and
keeps his
mouth shut
even if he’s asked something

Great man

At 6 PM the work day
ends
and he drives home

and parks in the
driveway

and spends another two
or even three hours
in the car

windows rolled up

silence

enjoying a can of beer
and thinking
aimlessly

just standing in
silence and
thinking

And I pass by him and
observe
and the more I do so
the more I understand

the closer I get
to becoming
that man
Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "I pass by him and observe"!

Check it out HERE!

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B09C46RMPS/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=96628550-28a0-4f19-9a78-7717f0614bbd&ref_=ap_rdr

Thank you!

insanity can be toyed with

it’s weird that you can
grab these tools
in any hardware
store
whenever you want

hose and a
duct tape

and sleeping meds
from the drug store

It’s all available
these days
and so it should be

Society shouldn’t try so
hard to keep all of its
members alive

she could preach for hours
on the subject
and would do such a good
job about it
that even you’d start
believing

On that night when she
confessed
her madness to me
I told her, “You can have
fun with your insanity. Chance
the world even.
Hadn’t all the people who
changed the world been
insane?
Don’t be too quick to
throw it away or seek to ‘heal’ it.
There is another way out.
And it’s through.”

She said she knew I’d say
that. Because her insanity
was the ability to
see into the future

She then left
because she knew I would
not lend her
my car to
suicide in it by connecting
the hose to the exhaust pipe

“You can’t drive a car,” I
said. “Ain’t got
no license.”

and she said, “I don’t wanna
drive it. Just
do the thing with the
hose.”

“Yeah, but to do that
you’d have to take the car
away somewhere. Can’t do it
anywhere here in the city, you
know?”

“How about you drive us
somewhere–?”

“And then what? Come back
with your body on
the passenger’s seat?”

She didn’t say much after
that

She could see the
future in 144 branches,
as she put it.
144 possibilities for
it to unfold in every next
144 seconds.

Meanwhile I was
so short sighted that I
couldn’t even see
what she really wanted when
she suggested that I drive us
both somewhere

She wanted me to go
with her
all the way
to the other side

I’m not sure I would’ve
said no
back then

It would’ve been part of
my insanity

But, what do you know,
even that changes

If you stick around for long
enough you
discover that it can
be toyed with - the insanity

The form it has today
is the form that
allows me to write about her
all those years later

She was mad enough to
see the future

I was mad enough
to see her
Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "insanity can be toyed with"!

Check it out HERE!

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B09C46RMPS/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=96628550-28a0-4f19-9a78-7717f0614bbd&ref_=ap_rdr

Thank you!

people who give me advice

he was that type
that took no
shit from nobody

but unlike most
people living like that
he was not ignorant
or prejudiced

he knew exactly what
he was doing

and lived by his words:
“People who give me
advice are actually giving
themselves advice.”

I’m so glad I’ve
heard this
before even thinking of
giving him advice

the words hit so deep
with their truism
that I not only didn’t give
him advice
but actually asked for
some of his own

I looked up to him

and became
like him

Today
I too write

and people give me
so much
advice, it’s crazy

They give me so much
advice
I never run out of
characters and stories
to tell

It’s all in there
In the advice they
think they’re
giving others
Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "people who give me advice"!

Check it out HERE!

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B09C46RMPS/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=96628550-28a0-4f19-9a78-7717f0614bbd&ref_=ap_rdr

Thank you!

Prison Saint

yeah, he had this crazy deep
scar
across the face

not from ear to ear
but rather temple to chin

it was the kind of
scar that’s impossible to
replicate

no fakers and no worshipers
will ever
get that tattooed right
on their faces

He’s got a lot of
followers, admirers
around the prison grounds

they look up to
him
as to a guru of sorts

yet he’s got nothing
to teach

nothing other than pain

self inflicted

On his first night here
he wrestled another inmate
for an iron nail
that was supposed to be used
as weapon or part
of a weapon

only, he didn’t want to use
it to hurt anybody

but himself

Only… he didn’t hurt himself
with it

No, he really just placed the
damn thing on his
left thigh
and hammered it in with
a fist
all the way to the bone

and then smiled
as the rest of
the prisoners watched

Yeah, it was the overwhelming
sense of fulfillment
this man felt with his
deed that
brought the others on their
knees
and convinced them to
worship him

It’s been months since
the incident
and the wound still hasn’t infected

not a damn thing
happened. Like he’s no
real human being
as the rest of us

I guess it’s this transcendence
of humanity that
determines us
all
to watch him as a saint

We bring him
all the metal we can
find or steal
and watch him insert it into
his body
and hold it there
and not get infected

he is truly…
not of this world

He’s a saint

the other day I
brought him the rusty handle
of a spoon
and he did look upon me with his
limpid, dispassionate eyes
as he drove it into his
armpit

Tomorrow then

I will do better than all
my friends
and bring him a real
actual
true knife

It’s gonna be my
day

I’m going to make it

Then the whole
yard will know that I
am in this man’s favor

Prying the knife off
the guard’s
hands
shall be no challenge

by now
they too
are followers of
this saint

Oh, I can’t wait

I’m going
right now

I’m going for
it
Many thanks to Gobblers by Masticadores for featuring my poem, "prison saint"! 

Check it out HERE!

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B09C46RMPS/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=96628550-28a0-4f19-9a78-7717f0614bbd&ref_=ap_rdr

Thank you!

I burn her things, man

I've never seen a bathroom
so perfectly empty
before

literally just the toilet
a sink
and a shower-head. No tub
or cabin. Nothing

And a dark brown
irregular circle
captured the eye
from the very core of the room,
on the blue tiles

"That's where I burn
her things," he said

"What things?"

"You wanna see?"

"Nah, I'd rather just listen
to you talk about it."

"I burn her things, man.
Been doing so ever since she left
for the final time.
Every night I sit right there
on the toilet
and drink
and drink
and place a dress or some
stockings or
shoes, panties, whatever's
left in her wardrobe
over there on the ground
and set it on fire.
And watch it burn. And drink.
The window's open. Smoke goes
out
along with all my thoughts
of her.
When things refuse to catch fire
I pour some of her perfume
on them.
It feels good to smell it burning."

"Who was she
really?" I asked. "Wife? Girlfriend?"

"Muse," he said. "When she was
around I could do
my work. But now... all I do is
drink all day and burn her
things and watch them in the
flames. The rest of the time
I just sleep."

I found out later
that he
was talking about his
daughter

She was alive
and fine

living somewhere with
a boyfriend

She even visited from time to
time but
he could no longer see her
as a muse. Only as
a distant friend

Also the clothes he
burned
weren't even hers

he bought them himself
to feed the
delusion

and the delusion
grew too large
and eventually ate him
Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "I burn her things, man"!

Check it out HERE!

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B09C46RMPS/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=96628550-28a0-4f19-9a78-7717f0614bbd&ref_=ap_rdr

Thank you!

I can always laugh

I wash my hands into
the sink
and don’t move them
much

just let the water
flow over them

suddenly I start laughing
in silence

wheezing

“Are you kidding me?”
he asks from
behind the mirror.
“Laughing?
At a time like this, in
a place like this?”

“What’s wrong with
laughing?”
I ask

“Laughing is a social
phenomenon,” he says. “It is
only acceptable when performed
in a social environment
along with other people! You
have no excuse for
doing it alone.”

I dry my hands
and nod
to myself

then we both start
laughing

and the others
join in
from all sides. The seen
and the unseen

Honestly,
what a blessing it is to
know that I’m never
alone

therefore
I can always laugh

Life
is good
Many thanks to Gobblers by Masticadores for featuring my poem, "I can always laugh"! 

Check it out HERE!

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B09C46RMPS/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=96628550-28a0-4f19-9a78-7717f0614bbd&ref_=ap_rdr

Thank you!

a watermelon in the streets

“D’you remember?” he said. “That time when
we returned from work. We were
working in the same place
back then.
And it was dark outside
and we walked along the street when suddenly
there’s this big
watermelon
that pops in our way. We walked up to it
and gave it a few
light kicks and convinced ourselves that
it must’ve been dropped
by some delivery truck or
forgotten by some merchant. And then you had this
brilliant idea.
You said that we should take it to my
place and share it.
I picked it up and to my place we
went and we shared the sweetest watermelon
I’ve ever tasted in my life. Love
was obviously
the secret spice there. We were
so poor back then
we were crazy enough to pick some random
watermelon from the streets.
Well… not much changed today. I’m still
poor and you’re
still my imaginary girlfriend. We’ll
be together
forever, you and I.”
Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "a watermelon in the streets"!

Check it out HERE!

https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B09C46RMPS/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=96628550-28a0-4f19-9a78-7717f0614bbd&ref_=ap_rdr

Thank you!

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

Up ↑