Thursday, March 31, 2011

Because

Because the sky is blue
Your blue eyes found me
A cheerful vagabond
A proton with no orbit

Because the earth is round
I’ve unbound my soul
And found heaven in you touch

Because the sun glows
Your glowing skin warms me
Melts my every care
Every fear or insecurity

Because night falls
Your lips call
Me to be free

Because the ocean’s deep
Your deep mind astounds me
Confounds me
Arouses curiosity

Because the stream meanders
My soul wanders
And so I came to you

Because the stars twinkle
Your twinkling smile cheers me
Surrounds me with the arms
Of joys embrace

Because the breeze blows
My heart knows
It’s where it wants to be

© José V. Guerra Awe

Monday, March 28, 2011

Oda a la Lluvia

El día envejece
Son las cuatro
Se parte el cielo en dos
Y de la fisura abismal
Nace la lluvia,
Elixir potente y mítico,
Desde ese vientre celestial
Empieza a caer lentamente
Sobre los techos de paja
Los corredores
Las avenidas
Y los rincones oscuros
Luego golpea vigorosamente
Sobre las ventanas
Los paraguas abiertos
Y los charcos lodosos
Sopla su viento contra las vitrinas
Las hamacas
Las compuertas cerradas
Y se contorsiona entre las ramas
Los carrillones de viento
Y las hojas que caen
Suenan sus latidos temblorosos
A través de los valles
Contra las paredes
Y la tierra firme
El eco de su voz lúcida
Se reparte por los hogares
Se deja ver su luz
Fuego apasionado
Iluminante
Nacido desde sus tinieblas
Ocultas
Y mientras los niños callejeros
Juegan jubilosamente
En la frescura de sus gotas
Se deja caer dentro de los vasos
Las ollas profundas
Los envases
Y las cisternas
Repone a los campos
Los acuíferos
Las cascadas
Los mares azules
Y a la inocencia
Y allí, durante lo ardiente de su tempestad
Después de haber asesinado a la sequía
Se rinde
La lluvia
Vino astral y fecundo
Nos regala su magnetismo con vida
Calma la sed pesante
Al  dejarse beber

© José V. Guerra Awe

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The Shade

Under the shade we flourish
But we stand in barren fields
Young minds are starved
Swept  
To unfulfilling paradigms
They lose sight of
Hope and patriotism
Sucked further
Into a whirlpool of
Complacency, Ignorance
Arrogance and Immaturity.
                     
We pledged to freedom our manhood...
While our womanhood and childhood
Lay neglected and abandoned
Alcoholism, rape, child abuse,
Sexual exploitation, domestic violence
Mounting suicides...
And as the gradient steepens,
We still claim to be free
But shackles bind us by our hands and feet.

Jobs rarer than pink elephants
Beggars adorn our streets
Yet a chosen few enjoy tax breaks,
Immunity to The Law,
And Our tax dollars...
But no one holds accountable
The tyrants that still linger
So while parochial leaders fill their own coffers
Tens of thousands remain below poverty line

Where’s the freedom that was professed?
We’re still waiting on tomorrow’s noon
Oppression’s rod clings to us like an eagle's talons...
While our educated countrymen and women
Continue to flee... and who can blame them?
We are no longer hewers...
Instead we’re being hewed
By rising costs and stagnant wages,
Limited opportunities
Facilitated by nepotistic despots

The might of truth has proven weak
Our leaders proven Godless
They blind us; segregate us
Using red or blue
To the point that
We no longer are united
And can no longer recall
The sweet taste of unity.

We are the architects of our nations design
As a people we continue to transcribe
From the examples provided by
Countless nations before us...
But instead of extrapolating a sustainable design
We are engineering the blueprints for a revolution
That is forthcoming

It is coming...
I hear it in the distance
Like the clanking of chains
Worn by long lines of untouchables
And as the voice of oppression
Reverberates and echoes off the hillsides
I realize that our oppressors linger on
The Baymen have departed
But their legacy remains
I can hear it in the distance
Thundering down these hills
Carving further into these valleys
Like the corruption that carves us into oblivion

I can hear it in the distance...
And it is time to change our course.
We must face this giant like our forefathers
Faced the Spaniards off St. Georges Caye
Like them we must stand united...
Many races under one flag
For the good of the nation
Not the good of our own pockets


Like a forest
We must stand United
Buttresses sunk deep
That we may cast a shade
So others may flourish
For only through unity and justice
Will barren fields
Transform to dense jungles
Only then will we be a land of free
Men, women and children...
Under the shade we flourish...
We must replant the trees

© José V. Guerra Awe