Thursday, October 16, 2014

Sergio A. Ortiz - Two Poems

Ebola

to the desert
where redemption is free ...
Ebola,
a faraway transparency,
a swig of blood, a touch?

West Africa
just sank into the sea—
redemption
held up the shredded 
faces drenched in tears

what comes next,
will we see the corpses flying
above our heads?
this jail inside a jail
inside a sinking desert



The Color of Death

her skin chips off
around the arms like seashells
then darkens
just above the ankles…
a hundred years on the stretcher

I visit after the stroke
and hear a knelling—
half of her body
silent gold dust,
the other half a silky sorrow



Sergio A. Ortiz is the founding editor of Undertow Tanka Review. He lives in San Juan Puerto Rico.  He is a four-time nominee for the 2010-2011 Sundress Best of the Web Anthology, and a two-time 2010 Pushcart nominee.

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