bring me a smile and hold your mug from the bottom

I dropped him off at his apartment after a night of drinking, the office was celebrating-one of our co-workers got sworn in. As he was about to open his door he looks at me and says, Do you feel it too? I look at him and ask,

Feel what? He gets out and I stay there with the engine still running as he fumbles with his keys. He opens his front door and I say to myself, Yeah, I feel it too.

**

For months I have been dropping him at his apartment. After our Friday meetings, after we have our shots at work and pretend the week went by smoothly, when we pretend we won't think about our work on the weekend, the people we meet and those we can't help. The rides home are always silent. Even though we've talked and joked and shared moments of intense clarity when we could not deny the feelings when we look at each other in a room full of coworkers and acquaintances. After a night of tequila shots and Coronas, we are always quiet when alone. Each one afraid to say what we know we are both thinking.

Do you want me to wait till you get inside? I ask him. The answer is always no. So I drive off and he walks away and we are left alone to our thoughts.

a poem constructed with the help of the definition of ink

a poem constructed with the help of the definition of ink

you came in different pigments
I theorized you would always be the same image,
rendered out of sweat but always love.
you were an ink made of metal,
complexities dyed into your viens.
tight cell walls that I couldn't swallow
bruised
y tambien yo nunca vi la diferencia
en las palabras y los hechos.
the definitions become blurred

iron salt
is a fitting name for the dilemma that was simmered,
This binding agent.
--
Noemi "hermana, resist" Martinez
http://www.hermanaresist.com

revolution::art::poetry::zines
http://www.csdistro.com

writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence-
Alice Walker

que no me encuentres una noche como esta

que no me encuentres una noche como esta

the now

of chasers and bottles and too cheap whiskey
of reciting time tables at the top of our lungs
listening to violins and apreciando el dia que se fue
el dia que dije, por eso toman
y por ese se van y dejan a
cinco o tres o dos
devuelven los envases en nueve meses

of heart shaped truths that don't fit
misshapen ones
en sueños y pensado asi, en Español
no hay hielo que se vea,
y pensando en el doble ll

it's foolish to think of intanglibles
in these times of war
to think of balls unraveling when we cannot define
love or peace
to think we can overlook
lo que la historia nos dice
en pensar que nacimos
en diferentes siglos
de diferente tiempos, familias
me gustaria haberte conocido
al pricipio, cuando tuve
noches
noches que el aire del tiempo no tocada, la luz siempre estaba-

la cama sin tender, el espacio esperandote.
Yo se que no debo penser asi, porque los dias son cortos
el trabajo no se acaba.
se que no debo soñar contigo,
palabras que nunca me has dirigido.
se que no debo pensar en ir,
ir a un refugio que te tenga a ti.
estoy perdida aqui, con botellas que no debo beber,

palabras que no me atrevo a decirte,
canciones que te quiero cantar.
que no me encuentres una noche como esta

--
Noemi "hermana, resist" Martinez
http://www.hermanaresist.com

revolution::art::poetry::zines
http://www.csdistro.com

writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence-
Alice Walker

driven

now that you're gone I dream about you. I can think about the stolen minutes.
when I'd drive you home and then how the hours would go by. We never
lied to ourselves, never called it anything that it wasn't. And there
were encores. I never let myself think about you till now. It just
happened. You didn't know anything about me outside what you saw from
9 to 5. And it was the way we wanted it.

Now, since you've been gone, I have this acidic feeling to my stomach,
like when you drink too much coffee and it fucks with your system. The
mornings don't feel like mornings- just a continuous part of the
previous day. And I'm tired of the routine of the days now that you're
gone. Like a part of me wants to scream as the day runs in patterns,
the next 100 will be like the previous 100, before you came. There is
a difference between the now of here without you. We reached the end,
you bit my lip y asi fue.

*legalese: this piece is a work of fiction.

--

the soul from purgatory springs

i need to use your name
taste your wet breath,
steal part of your soul,
run my tongue on your white teeth

feel the revolution through your fingertips
feel the urgency you sleep, blink, write
need to useyour bright eyes focus
on the real deal, the brave new world, the promised land
shape the right words
to formulate orgasms with three minute limits.
share the excitement of your thighs-to feel liberated.
I have not learned this art self salvation,
this art of writing, this art of achieving, this art of being

i have learned acceptance-hard on the line
I have learned lived hunger
I have lived desperation-hard on the line.
i have learned my work is not art

take these venial and mortal lines
full of blasphemy, fornication, masturbation
as my act of contrition
--
Noemi "hermana, resist" Martinez
http://www.hermanaresist.com

revolution::art::poetry::zines
http://www.csdistro.com

writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence-
Alice Walker

conjugating system

In time we will see

Peace; war and abuse- old storms

Justice in verb form

--
Noemi "hermana, resist" Martinez
http://www.hermanaresist.com

revolution::art::poetry::zines
http://www.csdistro.com

writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence-
Alice Walker