Sergio Ortiz, PR

 

 

Tanka   fragrant cedar archer aims a flaming arrow beneath my corpse catamaran: the beginning of the journey     at the funeral parlor, the still-life painting echoes of winter sleet— honey bees and rue in her pocket     a restless wind strip searches the beach I’m one step closer to a ban on naughty     old bridge like the new one a signature structure not merely a memory on the back of the sun     great apes branch to branch free range the missing link swinging arm over arm at the disco     rainy day the wind is still chilly swallows trill I recognize their voices from the years gone by     Funeral Bouquet   She was a still-life painter, but her spectacular flowers dried and dropped their petals. She picked up the most delicate and repainted the corollas. We thought her compositions would depreciate after she passed, so we watched the bouquets, waited for the wind to blow. winter sleet      honey bees and rue           in her pocket     Rust and Metal Handles   I too live in a death house. Root rot between sugar maple and dogwood burning my metatarsals. But I'm not sad or thirsty, I've got the wind and a little piece of sky. When it thunders I stick my phalanges out, wait for rain, and smile.     About Sergio Ortiz, US   Sergio Ortiz grew up between Chicago and Puerto Rico. He has a B.A. in English literature from Inter-American University, and a M.A. in philosophy from World University. He was an ESL teacher most of his life. His poems have been published or are forthcoming this in: Salt River Review, Modern English Tanka, Yellow Medicine, Autumn Sky, Red Fez, Rust and Moth, Tongues of the Ocean, Word Catalyst, Clean Sheets, MagnaPoets, Presence-Haiku Journal, Shamrock-Haiku, 3LightsGallery, The Smoking Poet, Journal of Truth and Consequence, Ganymede, Collective Fallout, and others.