Breath & Shadow
Summer 2021 - Vol. 18, Issue 3
"Christmas 2020" and "In the Caribbean"
written by
Sergio A. Ortiz
"Christmas 2020"
Four years of jerking myself awake, jarred dizziness, tears and very few friends, the Bronx doesn't need you. Stay, I'll fly in Doña Felisa's ghost with a cargo of snow wraiths.
don't leave me
counting seconds
cutting minutes
on my wrist
to ease the years
of letdowns
*Doña Felisa Rincon de Gautier was the Mayor of San Juan Puerto Rico from 1946 to 1969. In 1997 she flew snow into San Juan, PR.
"In the Caribbean"
In the Caribbean,
the past is always King.
Walls don't exist.
Races are wrapped
around an unaltered
midday summer sun.
The man resting
next to me, his kisses,
barriers he puts up,
anchored to fog.
I see myself, years
ahead, shimmering
like a virgin forest
in the sun.
Sergio A. Ortiz is a retired English literature professor and bilingual gay poet. His recent credits include Spanish audio poems in GATO MALO Editing, an important Spanish Caribbean publication, Maleta Ilegal, a South American journal, Indolent Books, HIV HERE AND NOW, Communicators League, RatsAssReview, Spillwords, and several other journals and anthologies.