Adrian Castro

LOISAIDA HAIKUS

Today el sol took
flight con una paloma
the beak of New York

*

The sidewalk takes a
cold shower another day
bereft of tropics

*

Jackhammers sirens
other city music rrrattat-
tat fast & shit

*

Celia Tito
Oscar leon salsero
in town congas fly

*

Graffiti pigeons
thunder over Loisaida
lyrical breaths bleed

*

The empire was built
bodegas sold Miguel's dreams
rrready to break loose!

*

Guire y timbal
the streets crackle rhythm
veins highway for arms

*

Boricua you is
You are chewing memory
You of cosmic history

*

Singing the song lifting,
the buildings rise the
gentry keep walking

*

The sky is sad, junk,
puta among the veins
love is now a plague

*

Rats with javelins
frequent trenches of lodo
Even cheese can kill

*

The virgin arrives
flower in her black hair now
a budding puta

*

Pablo the grocer
says free beer on Sunday morn
mouth open with drunks

*

East River aglow
I have reached the end but
there is still no light

*

Avenue D to
Avenue A Nuyorican
poets healing

*

Born on sidewalk
skin of ink decorations
concrete tribal paint

*

Tomorrow el sol
will wink on a pigeon's eye
culture dreams our breath

HONEYMOON IN CHINA

---for Siu

She might've loved the island
after all
she wore her white uniform of love
the first & last time
thereshe
wore her white uniform a long way for the honeymoon
China can be far from EI Barrio Chino
Beijing with its big wall of incense &qi
Shaolin temples
herbalists with prescriptions from previous dynasties
martial artists who
dedicated their lives to singing
the body divine
were not bereft of expression
yet

They went to China on a honeymoon
but displays of gunpowder
the blood running forming puddles
on dirt roadsides
soon kept them in the largest of prisons
And after 63 years
several children
after much sorrow & laughter
exile & remembering
she would never see la bodega en EI Barrio Chino
where she opened a door
to another home
where she met her destiny
to another life

ÒGÚNDÁ

Òsúndá kara wá Òsun méjè bá kara wá
Òshà dè
Three come cutting through
rants of ignorance
through
the white rooster sadly whistling
he's superior
through
the dog growling at an iron door
to the marketplace selling war
Three come cutting-

They said where we see three
cowries with mouth facing up
among 16 of its siblings
they said we should offer a sacrifice---
this is where Òrìshá shall help conquer the conflict
Ògúndá is like this
(ni je be)

There was a time when even
the croa-croa frog frightened the crocodile
If there was a crocodile
who wanted to be owner of the river
If he wanted his destiny to come to pass
what should his questions be---
So he put his hands on his head
when he asked his diviners the path to conquer those conflicts
that will arise
They said he should offer
3 pigeons & 3 bush rats
(this the fuel for courage)

They said offer
palm nut shells
Offer
7 iron pegs
Crocodile heard what needed to be done
In the morning
He met with Elegba on the river bank
If Elegba said
"Open yr mouth"
he fastened iron pegs as teeth
If Elegba said
"Turn on yr belly"
he fastened a layer of shells
on his back
If croa-croa frog came near
Crocodile would clamp his iron teeth
If any fish grazed him
he would slash them with his skin of shells
No one
could frighten
Crocodile
Crocodile became king of the river

And he was dancing like whipping his tail
praising his diviners & Òrìshà
because they had spoke!! the truth
because his destiny came to pass
Crocodile has his courage
Crocodile has his home. . .

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©2007 by Adrian Castro