Nobility of Blood

Nobility of Blood

Dear Lord, this Thanksgiving
all the drug-lords promise
to thank you for AIDS, although
it has not made them transcend
into the 21st century. They are
still caught up in superficial things
like money, BMWs, and killing.
We thank you for tent evangelists,
brothers and sisters alike,
breeders of hate crimes,
that reject the perfect beauty
of homemade remedies
and blood transfusions.
Lord, forgive my arrogance
toward the medical community
and appoint faith healers
to pharmaceuticals. Dear God,
thank you for allowing me to live
on the periphery of society,
where nobody asks yet everybody
tells.  Thank you for the innocent
the illusion of my open exhibitions
of affection toward Omar. Thank you
for the rapid spread of HIV 
in Africa, where water, food,
and medical supplies have always
been scarce or costly, where rape
and violence towards women
is beyond control, where children
have no choice but to fight
for brutal warlords, where life
and death no longer belongs to You.
Somalia, have you learned to die?

tanka

Cold Cotton Shirts Tanka by Sergio Ortiz

English Original

last night
weary eyes blossomed
in the closet       
his cold cotton shirts
warmed by my hands

Lynx, 28:2, June 2013

Sergio Ortiz


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

昨晚
疲憊的眼睛一亮
我的手溫暖
衣櫃裡
他的防寒棉襯衫

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

昨晚
疲惫的眼睛一亮
我的手温暖
衣柜里
他的防寒棉衬衫


Bio Sketch

Sergio Ortiz is an educator.  Flutter Press released his debut chapbook, At the Tail End of Dusk (2009), and his second chapbook, Bedbugs in My Mattress (2010).  He is a three-time nominee for the 2010, 2011 Sundress Best of the Web Anthology, and a 2010 Pushcart nominee.  He received a Commendation in the 2012 International Polish Haiku Competition.  His poems appear in, Shot Glass, Notes from the Gean, Atlas Poetica,Skylark, A Hundred Gourds, Poetry Pacific,  Lynx, and Kernels Online; are forthcoming inRibbons.

tanka

in life’s foyer

you were a bougainvillea

with no thorns . . .

I, the caretaker, sweeping

away fallen petals