NaPoWriMo Wednesday, April 21st, 2010/ Picture © Sergio A. Ortiz, April 2010

To the Crying Venusians

dedicated to Ashley Santiago and Steven López Mercad

both brutally murdered trans-gender people

living in Puerto Rico

My skin shrieks,

a cave dweller notified

of yet another death,

filaments by which the eagerness 

of penguins annihilate

memories of dwindling

oceanic twilight. 

I did not want to leave

a trail for redheaded dragons

with fiery tongues to terrify

empty lighthouses,

meadows and the jingles

of readers on my day

of resurrection.

Queen Lazarus unwraps

my feet with the grace

of a deer tutoring my hands

in the art of dying.

Daddy, daddy, daddy

my knees are skin and bone.

I wear a pink triangle

and numbers tattooed

around my ankles.

©  Sergio A. Ortiz, April 21, 2010