E.P. Robles | Poetry

TONIGHT the storm’s fierce lightning

T H O U G H T — S T R U CK!

and split a tree!

That beauty –: deformed by love____

— nature that kills what it loves

Between branches of passion-time

haunted by ill angels only

Perched upon a dark throne, sits proudly

I have reached these lands \
newly From an ultimate dim Thule

Through winding paths and forest deep,
Where dreams and whispers softly creep,
I wander forth with heart aglow,
In search of truths that nature sows.

:: 06-12-2014 ::

MOTHER loved me, she
said, “stay home
after school
I’ve got to work
so be careful dear.”

Mother, I worry
you tend a bar
and men are hungry

The days were wicked.
back in that day ~
Sometimes 24 and times
48 hours later.

I’d go to school with a stomach
full of holes wondering how
she is — mama! I didn’t see you
and i’m so scared!

Learning algebra wasn’t so interesting
but English caught my attention

One night she had a party
with men and it went on for days
and days partying they did

Until I heard her screaming
I ran into her room and saw
two men raping her ~~ I tried
but I was a small boy

Boy!  I’ll kill you! said one man.
The other took mama and made her cry
so hard.  I passed out in the hallway
of a cheap trailer.  

Oh, this world.  So cruel.  
Oh, this world.  So cruel.

:: 03.17.2024 ::

In places I’ve never explored, gladly beyond
any known experience, your eyes speak quietly:
Even in your smallest gestures, there’s something
that envelops me, or eludes my touch because it’s too close.

Your slightest glance effortlessly unlocks me,
Though I’ve closed myself off like a tight fist,
You unfurl me like Spring unfurls
Its first rose, with a touch that’s skilled and mysterious.

And if you wish to close me, then I,
And my life, will shut beautifully, suddenly,
Like when a flower’s heart imagines
The snow falling meticulously, everywhere.

Nothing we perceive in this world compares
to the power of your intense vulnerability: whose texture
compels me with the colors of far-off lands,
bringing death and eternity with every breath.

(I don’t know what it is about you that opens
and closes; only something in me understands
that the voice of your eyes is deeper than any rose)
No one, not even the rain, has hands so small.

LL 93,15,2924 LL

From the hill’s curve, where sorrow dwells,
A story rises, from a valley’s wells.
My soul feels pulled to hear its tune,
So I sit, ready to listen to its mournful croon.

There stands a girl, fair but pale,
Tearing papers, breaking rings, her voice a wail.
Straw hat upon her head, makeshift shield,
From the sun’s harsh rays, her visage concealed.

She lifts her napkin to her weeping eyes,
Ink-stained with tales of sorrow, where truth lies.
With each reading, her cries echo high and low,
A symphony of pain, in endless flow.

Her hair, neither bound nor free,
A sign of pride, yet marked by misery.
A trove of trinkets, amber, crystal, jet,
Thrown into the river, her heart’s regret.

Folded notes torn, tossed into the stream,
Rings of gold and bone, lost in the dream.
Letters inked in blood, with sorrow fraught,
Bathed in her tears, then kissed, then distraught.

A reverend man, old and wise,
Sits beside her, offering solace for her cries.
He lends his ear, his counsel kind,
To ease her burdened heart and troubled mind.

“Father,” she says, with a heavy sigh,
“Sorrow’s grip on me, I can’t deny.
I could’ve flourished, fresh and fair,
But love’s betrayal left me in despair.”

She tells of a boy, charming and sweet,
Whose words and lies swept her off her feet.
His locks of brown, his lips so fine,
Ensnaring hearts, like hers and mine.

“He played me false, his promises fake,
His charm a mask, his love a mistake.
Now I’m left broken, my heart in pain,
By love’s cruel hand, I’m left to remain.”

The girl’s tears flow, a river’s course,
Her sorrow pouring out with force.
Yet in her words, a strength is found,
Rising above the pain that once bound.

The reverend listens, with care and grace,
To the girl’s tale of love’s disgrace.
And though her heart may be bruised and frayed,
He offers comfort, in the shadows’ shade.

:: 03.15.2024 ::

WHILE almost sleeping are my dreams
as spaced as stars within skies
Undressed as nude with steel frowns
as dreaming brains upon pillows
breathing interruptes my dreams
as cellophonane flowers
where world’s slogans scream
in disparity upon precarious days
i am the little one living
day by day

My vulgar words a hearse
carrying love and pain
as e’ery flower and color
a wet and cold bed of crimson joy.