Jacob Valadez

bikes

 

she is all the red square cathedrals

dipped in honey.

krasnaya, they say archaically.

to my ancient soul

she is an lp’s grooves, that smile

upon fresh rained pavement or,

gliding under the silvery stars,

cosmos borealis.

 

she rode her turquoise bike away

on a rainy day near the end of the world.

she had an empty wire basket on the rusted front.

  

five of us

 

we’re them’s enabler,

so the dealt is done.

 

burrow deep our friends,

the sun is hot salt.

 

them doesn’t like us,

like grapes who eats one?

 

we knew magic. them

died, smothered from love.

 

i, in time

 

i read somewhere that time

   or their time or her time so

   this magnificent quote, i thought


  was not the same to any one person

 and when i came across

 i should take my time

 how my time was different from your time

   caught on a crisp autumn breeze and no more

 slip by the most fluidly, scarves

   and live for the times that seem to

 subject to time than am i.

 

run away wheel

 

pitter patter, pink matter,

can you hear the hamster breathe?

pretty lights up resuscitation’s reach

tunnel’s end beyond reasoning up

throw god shaped lightning bolts control-

ed by a rodent spinning out of sight.

 

pity stares past sight,

look, pay attention, hamster matter-

s aren’t about control,

but correcting the way you breathe

and blank and bring up

how Reich sounds three things away from reach.

 

hamsters race along sulci reach-

ing down into depths, sight-

ing scopes to clean up

rainbows of red and red matter

that chokes, rainbow roots breathe

for you. what lies? control.

 

you have black holes in you that control

singular processes like when you reach

deep in your lungs for air, breathe

in singularities hamsters see under a microscope’s sight

so they can tell how the dark matter-

s. so please hurry up.

 

hipster hamsters know what’s up,

but up can be down if the control

room gets messed up, what’s the matter

with death riding bengal tigers that reach

for food that’s not a sight

unseen in a neuronal ocean that can breathe.

 

hello house. hello hal. just breathe

pops, read something to keep up

the spirits bought in a paper bag sight-

ed by cops dressed as hamsters who control-

s how now? brown cows reach

for golden status to be false matter.

 

vital is breathe you while mind in kept, matter

that hamsters own your to up sanity for try a, reach

than perfect more sight no knows control

 

small birds

 

i am sitting at the top of a building in the rain

there is always the now if the then was kept forgotten

the cold salt 

a small bird wakes in the nest

eyes open

i like his skin too cool

the small bird cries out on the edge of the nest as the wind whips around

my heart is pattering and he sees it

i am he and he is i

it patters in time with the rain

harder and harder like the ground the bird hits

i lose them to rain down on him and he feels their sound

the pattering heart holds me still and devours me

the shadow deafens him to the birds song

the skin too cool reaches me and I am fed

i am the bird

i am the man

now i can lie like the birds and their young 

 

by Jacob Valadez

 

Mr. Valadez is an aspiring writer who is currently attending the University of California San Diego as an undergraduate.

Paid Dues

Excerpt from Lily’s Odyssey, a novel, published with permission by All Things That Matter Press; its first chapter a Short List Finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award for Best New Writing

 

At the next session Dirk said, “To end your sense of abandonment you should find companionship. You have one foot in the traditional role for women and the other in women’s lib.” 

Yes, I’d been guided into the pink coral and branded with the “Triple O”: Obligation to God (church) and parents, Obedience to church and parents, Others take precedence over you, before being released to the marriage market; if I hadn’t returned to Nicolet City, I probably wouldn’t have strayed. I didn’t say anything so he continued; “I see about three months of work to get a new coat to protect yourself against obsessions.”

I stared at the hem of his pants and recalled Cal saying after first seeing Doctor, “It’s the first time I’ve seen a doctor wear leather pants. Is that some European thing like his mustache? He sure charges enough to make himself look like a doctor.”

“Do you think I should give Thomas Hirsch more information about what I’m doing?”

“Go right ahead.  Where’s the danger of letting it be known you’re doing so much because your bastard of an uncle won’t help?”

I was so surprised it was a moment before I said, “But it’d show him up,” frowning at the stained glass white dove with the black branch in its mouth.

When he folded his arms and said, “You’ve more than paid your dues,” I was surprised that being a Christian he’d say that. Yet, Doctor had said it too.

 

by Carol Smallwood

 

Carol Smallwood co-edited Women on Poetry: Writing, Revising, Publishing and Teaching (McFarland, 2012) on the list of Best Books for Writers by Poets & Writers Magazine; Women Writing on Family: Tips on Writing, Teaching and Publishing (Key Publishing House, 2012); Compartments: Poems on Nature, Femininity, and Other Realms (Anaphora Literary Press, 2011) received a Pushcart nomination. Carol has founded, supports humane societies.

Drunk Dream

You and me and brightness

You and me and pink and

Purple widening circles.

 

The pale skin on your neck,

That red cowlick like Tin Tin’s,

Your eyes, wide and blue.

 

Someone sings in a high,

Clear voice. We come close

To kissing, but don’t.

 

by Catherine Simpson

 

Catherine Simpson is a cellist who lives in Santa Barbara. She has been previously published in the Big River Poetry Review, Right Hand Pointing, Spectrum, Step Away Magazine, and Into the Teeth of the Wind. 

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