You Got Electricity!

 

—Poetry by Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozabal,

West Covina, CA

—Original Photos and Art by Luis Berriozabal

 

 

 

YOU GOT ELECTRICITY
After David Bowie

Alligator tears,
you turn them on when the moment strikes.
Invader of space,
you show up at the most inopportune times.

Shut the front door.
Bird is trying to fly inside, that’s bad luck.
Words get lost as I translate your thoughts.

Babe, you got electricity from
head to toe, and promise me if I ever
love you, that you will be kind,
yeah, that you will be so ever kind.

Me, myself, and I
love, are one and the same, you know.
Be that as it may,
care to take a little stroll with me. An
air of indifference only makes it harder.

Babe, you got electricity from
head to toe, and I promise you if you ever
love me, that I will be kind,
yeah, that I will be ever so kind.

Out in space is where our stars align.

____________________

GREETED BY MARIACHIS

Greeted by Mariachis
on the way
inside Petco Park
in San Diego,
California for Dia
de Los Deftones.
It seemed like
I was one of the only
ones who stopped
to listen as other
concert goers
walked by briskly
with their faces
in their phones.

 

 

 

 

CRICKET SONGS

Open the door
let all the crickets in.
You can go outside
and walk in the fields.

Let an hour pass.
Come back inside with
the crickets all around
and their songs in the air.

I will not sleep.
The crickets won’t let me.
You are welcome to
come in for the show.

__________________

LOOKING FOR WORDS

Looking for words
that do not exist.
Digging the earth,
scraping the sky,
and going deep
under the sea.
Is there something
that is hidden
in plain sight that
no one can see?
Are there words so
invisible,
so rare, so strange
that no one knows?
Alien words from
other worlds? I
will go into
my dreams and mine
them like precious
gold, priceless words
nobody knows.

 

 

 

 

STEP OUT OF THE SHADOWS
          For David O’Nan

If I could only step
inside one of your shoes,
I might at last step out
of the shadows, and
not fall down more often
than standing up straight.

If only the rain fell
through my window and splashed
on my face, I would come
out of my comfort zone
a little more, and put
an end to this apathy.

____________________

DARK THOUGHTS

When night enters your mind
the darkness follows while
the sun falls into the sea.

You yield to the dark thoughts
that fill your heart and mind.
These dark thoughts rise to the stars.

You push the day away,
striking a blow to the
blue sky, as it darkens
until you cannot see.

Despair enters your mind.
You bend over gasping.
Bad fortune comes knocking.
Your dark thoughts consume you.

 

 

 

 

 

YESTERDAY, TOMORROW, AND TODAY

There goes yesterday
like a bird in flames
just another Phoenix
that will fall and rise again.

There goes tomorrow
so near and so far
just another promise
that will turn to compromise.

Here comes today with
dirty boots and words
to make you scratch your head
as you hit your stride.

Yesterday, tomorrow, and
today, each come with its
own surprises, and which
do your prefer?

Live in the past and you
will never see tomorrow.
Live in the future and
the present is ignored.

_____________________

Today’s LittleNip:

That is all I want in life: for this pain to seem purposeful.

―Elizabeth Wurtzel, Prozac Nation

_____________________

—Medusa, with thanks to Luis Berriozabal for his fine poetry and artwork today, and to Joe Nolan for Rudolph here on this Winter Solstice, 2022!

And a note that James Lee Jobe has a new blog, called the poetry zendo, at https://poetryzendo.blogspot.com/.

 

—Public Domain Photo Courtesy
of Joe Nolan, Stockton, CA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For upcoming poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
in the links at the top of this page.

Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.

Would you like to be a SnakePal?
All you have to do is send poetry and/or
photos and artwork to
kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post
work from all over the world—including
that which was previously published—
and collaborations are welcome.
Just remember:
the snakes of Medusa are always hungry—
for poetry, of course!

 

Greeted by Mariachis!