Sorrowful months of unusual rain stunt fluffy rainbow asters sowed under last cool March's invisible sadness.  Listening to broken hearted arias my some time lover stares at leaning cut plum blossoms. On the underground radio hopeless voices report uncovered mass graves of pure Huehuetenango's slaughtered children.

Spittle bug suck at delicate stems of dainty wallflowers companion planted with hoped for pearly tuberoses.  Hoeing muddy weeds a street weary oldtimer passes by: "Lucky to work in a garden." 

Streamside our borrowed flower field common crow watch us plant Aztec zinnias just before the red Toltec sun comes down. The talking windbreak eucalyptus sway in the lazy breeze scattered radioactive air from innocent cracked canisters in transit through the nearby Mediterranean styled airport.

I wander down rows of baby's breath avoiding husks of dead caterpillars.  Yesterday spread the last volunteered ranunculas on my surrendered  good friend the poet’s beat grave remembering a rainy Buddhist Xmas he was gladly writing pious love poems.

         While she arranges
         roses she speaks
         with hidden pain
         about her beautiful God
         the hard husband
         the endless war

Paul Lobo Portugés

Reared in Merkel, West Texas, until saved by UCLA, the American Film Institute, and UC Berkeley, teaches creative writing at UCSB. Taught creative writing at UCSB, UC Berkeley, USC, SBCC, and the University of Provence. Proud father of two sons. Books include The Visionary Poetics of Allen Ginsberg, Saving Grace, Hands Across the Earth, The Flower Vendor, Paper Song, Aztec Birth, The Body Electric Journal, The Silent Spring of Rachel Carson, and Mao (forthcoming). Poems are scattered in small magazines across the America, Europe, and Asia . Award wining poetry films include Kai-hui to Her Beloved Mao, Kiss, The Lonely Wind, Fathermine, Stones from Heaven, and Of Her I Sing. Received awards from the National Endowment, the Ford Foundation, the American Film Institute, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the Fulbright Commission.


| Write to the Author | Archives