he who conquers lust

He who conquers lust
will conquer
anything else

Man, what powerful words
and what a powerful time
to remember them, think
about them, reflect

It was 11:30 PM
Closing time at the
grocery store

Few jobs are more suitable
for 58-year-olds with no
education than security guard

or that’s what he
used to think

It gives one the possibility to
be alone while still
being surrounded by people

definitely easier than being
at the cash registers

the cash registers were
hell itself

He avoided even thinking about it

so instead he
thought about the
words
"He who conquers lust
will conquer anything else."

words spoken by a teacher
back in the day when the problem of
lust was just
beginning to bud out.
Seventh grade that was. What
a time

At 58 it’s infinitely easier
to defeat lust
than at 14

but he could stand proud
for he’d done it at
14 also

Lust has been conquered back
then just as it was
conquered now
and…
what about the second part of
the saying?

He who conquers lust will conquer
anything else
now where was that
‘anything else’?

Shit…

Outside
in the parking lot
a man said to his kid,
"I said you could get anything,
but not everything."

Fools
both of them

the store had just
closed
Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "he who conquers lust"!

Check it out HERE!

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Thank you!

neighbor talk

I believe he was in his
mid thirties

lived with this one-eyed
gray cat
that always sat on his lap
while he
played video games

"You should try Diablo 3," he
once told me.
"Playing that game feels like
gambling.
You never know what item's gonna
drop and it just gives you
that sweet dopamine release when it
does.
New season starts the day after tomorrow."

I declined

Told him that I had no time for
video games
for I had a job and whatnot
(didn't go so far as to tell him
that I write in my spare time)

I know that he was
married some time ago

but it was all neighbor talk

If I am to believe the neighbors
then I'm to believe that
he was married to his
high school teacher

She taught English

and I guess somehow fell
in love with her student

There wasn't that much of an
age difference between
them. I'm guessing somewhere
between nine and fifteen years

But where we're from
the problem is not that
some adult seduced her underage
student into becoming her lover

the problem is
that she, the adult, was already
married and had two children

the problem is
she had abandoned that
family to be with her
student

And I guess
they were together for
a while

Married as soon as he
came of age

and then lived together
for a few years
and were happy

But her suicide?

I guess I'll never know

Some stories are better
left untold

Anyway
Diablo 3 turned out
to be quite cool
actually
Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "neighbor talk"!

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!

or is it just luck?

I don't think this is the
worst type but
it's certainly up there

the type that only contacts you
when they need something
from you

such as
to borrow money
or to sell you some
pyramid scheme shit

And it's funny to think that he
was by far the
richest guy in our group

at 23 he already had two apartments
One to live in
and one to rent out
and a pretty decent car

now all he's got is the car

He sleeps in it

and calls from time to time
and asks
"Hey, you ain't got no
girlfriend, right?"

It's not a way for him to flex
or anything

it's just his way of asking
whether or not you'd like to
spend some time
with his girlfriend

for a little
sum
of course

Yes, it has come to this

It's probably the destiny of
all hardcore
gamblers

have wealth
gamble
win or lose
gamble again until
you eventually lose
borrow money
lose the money
borrow again
win some
but lose some more
and so on

until you end up
asking random people if they'd
like to sleep with your
girlfriend for some money

But I guess the bigger mystery
here
is how in the
hell
is she okay with all that...

Seriously
do girls really have something
for gamblers
or is it just luck?
Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "or is it just luck?"!

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!

winter won’t leave already

No color, no sound,
just this grey sky pressing down
on a field that used to be alive

I hate how winter doesn't shout
It just takes and takes
until the world looks like this

My boots sink and the silence follows me,
thick and stubborn

quiet, empty,
and harder to care about

fellow lover of dark poetry

it was a very
nondescript truck

perfectly blended with
the environment

more building than
machine

it hadn't moved in
over eight years

the tires had melted into
the asphalt

and random weeds started
to grow around them
into the thin layer or dirt and
sand

I must've passed by it
thousands, tens of thousands
of times

paid it no mind

until it was
no longer there

Now where the hell was it?

Did the authorities
finally decide to tow it?

And if so
did they know
that truck was somebody's home?

I never learned his
name

but I heard he moved in
there after
the war.
State gave him enough money
to buy a small apartment or
something, but he chose that
old truck

some people are
bums by choice

Walking by
I'd see him in arid summer days
sitting behind the wheel
windows rolled down
a stumpy cigarette between his lips
a small chapbook in his hand

Never got to see the title
but I do recall
the image on the cover
't was a burning tree with one
shadowy, just vaguely human
silhouette hanging from it

He probably wasn't the kind of man
you'd want to
have in your circles
and perhaps his image dirtied
the overall aura of the neighborhood

I don't know
Don't care

All I do know now is that I'll never
get the chance to
walk up to his truck
and ask him what he's reading
and show him that I
too have chapbooks of my
own now

and I too
enjoy dark poetry

Well,
we both
probably enjoy
goodbyes
even more
Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "fellow lover of dark poetry"!

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!

fuel

he comes home in
the evening and
doesn’t
even greet his wife

she seems used to it

just like her husband’s used to
finding nothing to
eat anywhere in
the house

He’s tired and
feels like the whole world
had bullied him for
the past twelve hours

but complaining is
not on the menu

it never was

only a bottle of
wine

his wife brings it

opens it

pours
two glasses

and they start drinking

"Hello dear," he says after
the first sip
and leans in for a kiss

she reciprocates
and life
can finally begin

or continue
Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "fuel"!

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!

kid at the back of the class

he’s the one sitting
in the back of the class

wondering what it
would be like to
have the power to cause
someone to instantly
burst into flames

it makes him happy
for a while

It’s a way to channel the
inner rage

meanwhile his
grades are suffering
and the situation at home
isn’t better

but he’s past the point of
caring about any
of those

The meaning of life is to
exist as little
as possible in what the others
call reality
and get lost as much as
possible in one’s self

He’s good at it
so
for all we know
he’s living the life
of his dreams

Probably gonna start writing
in a few years

His kind usually does
Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "kid at the back of the class"!

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!

looking for reasons to doubt the voice

and this time
too
it comes out of nowhere

the voice says, "Now wait
a heartbeat.
What is this? Don't you
think you're a bit
too happy now?
The hell you think you're
doing!?
Trying to leave your
nature behind? Become a new
man?
Haha! Alright then. Good luck.
I mean, we both know it
won't work
just like it didn't work on your
previous attempts either."

I get out of bed

look around

Not for
the voice, of course

Only for
reasons to doubt it
for just one more day

One day at a time
Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "looking for reasons to doubt the voice"!

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!

he has to be stopped

the authorities keep
following him
around town

searching for him

They've been playing this
game for a time longer
than they care to remember

Thus
another urban legend
was born

The beggar poet

Not much difference between
a beggar and a poet
anyhow

but this one
angered the blue uniforms
of the town
by leaving his poems
behind

carved in the wood of
park benches
and brick walls
and in the hearts of
the week
the needy and the
indignant

He has to
be stopped
Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "he has to be stopped"!

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!

to hide from one’s thoughts

he comes to the park
at night
to try to stop
thinking

It sometimes works

It just hasn’t worked
ever since
he kept finding her
there

by the basketball field

in the dimmest
light

managing only the lamest
throw of a ball
to ever be witnessed

What’s wrong with
her?

And then she’d walk up to
were the ball
landed and pick it up
and walk back a few steps
and throw again

Not even close

This was no longer
a good place to
hide from
one’s thoughts

Not after realizing she
was one of them
Many thanks to LatinosUSA —English edition for featuring my poem, "to hide from one's thoughts"!

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!

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