Adobo Criollo Sergio Antonio Ortiz Rivera

jícaro hueco… capullos de rosas purifican mi corazón  hollow gourd… rose buds keep the heart clean and pure

winter journey… my knees weaken as we part

mail call— how graphic can we get? spring fever

snow on snow even the cranes  are silent

river reflection...   herons play peek-a-boo   in the shallows  

gentle as a butterfly fluttering in the night... spring chill

spring solitude I turn off the TV to watch the rain 

Libya another gasoline hike winter storm  

Blue Herons I stopped asking about the mouse in my apartment.  It is dead; I buried it in the back of the house, but first I set it on fire. Never again will it haunt me in my own space, or steal my words or walk among the images in my poems.    Today my unwritten lines will speak about a thousand and one blue herons darkening the magnolias with their parasols.  

she carries   an empty water jug . . .   Haitian dawn  

morning chill your breath gleams among the tulips

Vampiro Estas sin amor  pero eres tan puro como el agua hervida, una palma  y un lirio  en el trabajo  de hilo de un tapiz.  Eres camino que me enamora  con semidioses y monstruos esculpidos. Despierto envuelto en gaza, suave como un bebe, listo para mi primer carnicería. 

Vampire He is loveless, but pure as boiled water: a lily in the windless threadwork of a tapestry, a road wooing me with sculpted demigods and monsters I can’t seem to resist. I wake swaddled in gauze, smooth as a baby ready for my first kill.

the butterfly on the bonsai cherry -   patch of snow

in the old photo she's wearing my galoshes – winter shower 

thistle and silk - unaware my brush has run out of paint

yellow butterfly sits on the cherry blossom bonsai patch of snow

red kimono    spread over my bed   the silky wings of a crane  

Retablo Yo fui imbécil  del árbol del rencor trastocando mis noches  con inútiles cuerpos .   Fui jazmín   y calle  llena de apuestas, dolor inmaduro  de la huida y sombra que vestída  de flor cubria t u rostro.  Yo fui el tiempo  doblegado.  Esa angustia todavía me persigue.