On a summer morning,
I waited outside a county prison
to conduct research on the notion of freedom.
A short, bald man exited
the building, I assumed, a free man.
Turned out he was free indeed because I asked him.
“Sir,” I said, “were you just released?”
“Yeah,” answered the little man, “and who the hell wants to know?”
“Nobody,” I said, “just some guy who wants to know what it’s like
to be free.”
He chuckled, then scratched his stubbled chin.
“Is somebody picking you up?” I asked.
“No,” he answered.
“Wherever you go then,” I said, “won’t your legs tire out?
You aren’t used to walking long distance.”
The man looked at me with raccoon eyes, smiled,
then scratched his stubbled chin.
“You know how I got in there, boy?” he said. “With these legs here.
They never failed me ‘cept the once, and once is all they ever
gonna fail me.”
“But where will you go? Where will you stay?”
He squinted.
“Don’t worry about my legs, boy,” he said,
“or where I’m gonna take ‘em.
Instead, worry ‘bout this here mouth,
‘bout the words I’m gonna say, and how I’m gonna say ‘em
to people like you.”
II.
When the man approached a fork in the road half a mile down from the prison,
he turned left.
He didn’t hesitate, didn’t stop to scratch his stubbled chin,
he turned left.
He turned as if he’d turned that direction a hundred times.
III.
Upon release,
some men turn left,
while the rest go the other way.
Alex Z. Salinas lives in San Antonio, Texas. He is the author of WARBLES, his debut full-length poetry collection by Hekate Publishing. He serves as poetry editor for the San Antonio Review and holds an M.A. in English Literature and Language from St. Mary’s University.
Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times ; his publications include
All the Babble of the Souk , Cartoon Molecules and Next Arrivals, collected poems, as well as translation of Guadalupe Grande´s La llave de niebla, as Key of Mist and the recently published Tesserae , a translation of Carmen Crespo´s Teselas.
You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)
Month: December 2019
Birthday Poem for Sylvie Garnham Born November 9th 1941 by Bruce Hodder
If you knocked now, 23 years later,
what would I tell you over tea and biscuits?
I’d show you my book of poems, blushing, proud,
and my degree certificate. You missed them both.
I’d reminisce. I’d remind you of the fun we had.
I’d tell you I’ve learned to love trash telly since.
I’ve even read a few detective novels.
I’d tell you I have found real love at last;
she has seen me at my worst and still accepts me.
I’d say I think you’d love her; she’s my perfect match
and I’m happy, though not quite a grinning fool
with my illness. We’d have speak of that as well.
I wouldn’t have to tell you that your loss
was like an arm hacked off that never truly healed.
I wouldn’t have to say it. You would know.
Every hesitation, every facial tic I made
would tell you what my words concealed.
Bruce Hodder has had his poems appear in Crossroads, Medusa’s Kitchen, Best Poetry, The Rye Whisky Review and Duane’s Poet Tree, among others. This year he also published his collection The Journey Home with Whiskey City Press. He lives with his wife Michelle in Northampton, England.
Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times ; his publications include
All the Babble of the Souk , Cartoon Molecules and Next Arrivals, collected poems, as well as translation of Guadalupe Grande´s La llave de niebla, as Key of Mist and the recently published Tesserae , a translation of Carmen Crespo´s Teselas.
You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)
ESCAPE. A Poem by Priya Dolma Tamang
If vanishing
into thin air
was
a possibility,
would the sky
consume
my substance;
and limbus
engulf my soul
and the Siberian birds
take me home,
setting sail
on wayward winds
to unknown heavens?
Would you notice
I am gone
and smile back
at me,
when I twinkle
at you
in star-studded nights
and make a wish
upon me
to see me
one last time?
An escape
into nothingness.
Bio
Priya Dolma Tamang is a doctor, a poet and an author. She comes from Sikkim, the second-smallest Indian state. Her debut poetry book, Ivory Gleam, was published in 2018. She shares her passion for poetics as @poetryandprosebyk on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times ; his publications include
All the Babble of the Souk , Cartoon Molecules and Next Arrivals, collected poems, as well as translation of Guadalupe Grande´s La llave de niebla, as Key of Mist and the recently published Tesserae , a translation of Carmen Crespo´s Teselas.
You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)