Chronicles on Violence

The following series of poems is for publication in an anthology of 18 word poems. Each of the eighteen poets is submitting 18 poems. My poems are a series based on gender-based violence--a cheerful topic I know, but one which needs much, much more discussion. Here is a sample. Mark Cobley of Red Ceilings Press in the UK was kind enough to ask me to submit, check him out: The Red Ceilings

Chronicles on Violence I

Grandpa’s daddy raped his mother.

        

Here’s an X for him.

No peonies.

                                           El nopal.      

                                                         Whiskers burn.

Never speaks.

Chronicles on Violence II

Never speaks again,

tongues a torture of words.

He sutures her lips

with black thread

a silver needle

Chronicles on Violence III

Uses a silver needle

to cross-stitch his name.

Cross beams

cannot support

what he plants

with his fist.

Chronicles on Violence IV

With his fist

Vato loco

tightens a red bandana

around your throat.

A tattoo of

your name bleeds.

Chronicles on Violence V

Bleeding

she unties

the goat of the past.

A rat’s skeleton

crunches underfoot.

His dark shadow

rustles black.