Our Copper Anniversary

It’s two months ago.

We are in a kitchen in Rome

And your head bows slightly into the steam coming off the sink.

“Penny for your thoughts,” I say

Which causes the beginning of a smile to be drawn

At Etch a Sketch speed.

I’ve seen this before

A smile you share with your not-so-little little brother

A roguish rue,

That I will go down often over the years to come.

“Keep the change,” you say.

“I don’t need the pennies” and to prove the point, a strand of copper falls down between us.

I realize then that I’ve my sayings mixed up.

“Pennies from heaven,” I try again.

But compliments won’t do at this point

Ears are deaf to the tales hair tells

“Scratch my head, fool” you correct me, still smiling,

You know that only hands really know how to listen.

And so I start.

My fingers follow in time

Each copper string I touch plays a note you’ve written yourself over the years

These are some of my favorites:

At 32 you wrote: Swedish men aren’t worth having to eat pickled herring

At 28: Litter boxes are tolerable as long as each night I can wear its owner like a fur cap

At 25: Spain is cool except in the summer. But loneliness sucks year-round

At 20: I still love Beethoven even though he didn’t write anything for the flute.

At 16: High school is bad. High school in South Florida is unbearable. Hasta la vista, baby.

At 11: Older brothers are mean AND they smell.

At 5: My oldest sister gave me a purple flower and told me purple is best. I agree.

At 2: I’ve decided to be shy.

At birth: In 34 years, I will meet a boy, and I will marry him.

a new poem...by g. martinez cabrera

A Journey in Early Fall

And now you turn to me—not quite an afterthought,

And I am appreciative for this.

You tell me, not in words, but by the way you slightly cock your neck as you give me a hug:

All I have to do is come and join you for a swim

Out in the green that surrounds us.

But pettiness, or fear, or just a need to hear what you won’t say, I suspect

Has made me a bad swimmer.

And as we travel in this ship of sorts

Sailing down to an awareness

That the end of this journey is really only the beginning of something else,

I am conscious of this limitation, and I fear it.

So for now I sit here

Consoling myself by watching you.

Showing my hesitant smile without hesitation.

Happy, seeing you as you imagine yourself

In the embrace of the moon, your soul-mate, your friend.

Home Movies- Edaurdo Jones

Growing up my home videos weren’t exactly the funniest America
You see my mom was constantly trying to balance her inner harmonies
with the fact she was the only one bringing home money
to feed her clothe her two lil angels
but what she didn’t see is
we were two unholy demons
each of catching a felony before the age of eighteen
Now best believe she paid infinite fees trying to save her precious babies
I never thought we could bend that woman so far back
she’d just snap.
where was dad you ask?
Soulless bastard planted two seeds and pulled a dead beat eye blink bye-bye
Doesn’t even matter to me
Cuz the only memories of Jim
involve man sized beatings and my tiny body
I got me a step monster of course
who constantly made me stack wood by the chord
I’m still misunderstood how he thinks all those cans of bud
make him a wiser man.
Now everyday I thank the man above for blessing me with Dolly and Bill
The grandest of grand parents
they had this uncanny ability to see my halo and wings
when others only saw a set of horns and a pitch fork.
Now my uncle Bill was ill
taught me how to get spilled behind the wheels and avoid the boys in blue
all by the time I to turned ten plus two
On a brighter note though
every summer for long as I can remember come August
nanny and grampy rented this cottage
To give my mom a break
grant little Chris his wish
an make Jimminy cricket happy
now ease filled days of fun sun and Atlantic sea breeze
introduced the female form in a bikinis effect on me
The true meaning of birds and bees
those anti virginity real ice cream screams had me hook line and sinker
If there’s one thing I learned in my adolescence America
it’s girls on vacation are inhibition less
you can do the math
no one she knew could possibly know anyone that I knew
So who would know but us two
that she allowed me to slide off her sweet teen angst soaked panties
and up into her juicy ripening peach on a moon lit salisbury beach.
now oh joy there’s a lot of joy when innocence is lost
and a shit ton more pain when you realize it cant be bought back at any cost
now these eyes have witnessed thirty one frosts thaws and falls
along with the inside of four different states cell walls
I caused my moms nerves to just breakdown
I tore a hole in that woman’s soul when I left her all alone
so it makes it kind of hard to pick up a phone and reach out and touch her
Just to say momma
Your lil angels fallen again
so my mothers home videos are anything but funny America.
And i can’t even fathom how much worse my mothers, mothers, mothers. home videos got to be.
It’s a curse that I can’t just pick up the remote and press reverse!