Fun

Poems

A collection of student poetry

Purple and Golden

Cielos de púrpura y oro 

— Prayer to the Salvadoran Flag 

 

I fell for you in the middle of the 

Orange, golden sky of your dawns 

 

After a sleepless night full of worries 

And monsters outside my room’s window. 

 

I heard your voice in the matutinal 

Song bird of Sunday,

 

On the howling winds of October, and 

On your crashing waves. 

 

No one can understand your pace

Until they had slept on a hammock 

 

By your sea. No one can understand your peace 

Until they have been soothed by your breeze.

 

I miss your gifts: a ripe mango 

Barely hanging on a branch of 

A tall tree. The mango so big 

It almost brings the whole branch down, 

 

And a small, smooth stone in my hand. 

After tries and tries I get to have 

 

The free delight in my tired hand. How many 

Tries until I get that mango? 

 

How many tries to get out 

Of my lonely country? 

 

Now that I am out, now that 

I am not with you anymore 

 

I wonder if I’ll get a reward 

As sweet as one of your fruits, 

 

Or if that is forever gone, 

And I have lost your sky

 

Dear Living Things

I am using this tree as if I were a god.

Using it to give genesis to something

I have named collective sadness,

Named our mourning. This morning

I met a red cardinal.

He told me things — told them like

A eulogy — told them like a sorrowful

Song — sang them like a requiem mass.

 

He said he saw, weeks ago,

Silhouettes running in the desert

Right before the sky had spread

Its wings.

 

These creatures standing

High in the moon

-light and then low as snakes in sand.

 

Fast as river and then still as death.

 

The blue men caught up to them, surrounding

Them. The cardinal heard the creatures’ names 

“Aliens” the blue men screamed. “Stop” 

“Quietos” 

 

The aliens froze and dropped — 

To the ground. The cardinal followed the group, 

And saw the aliens caged (like birds). 

They were quiet, as if something 

Had escaped their dreams. 

 

As if they had drowned in the space 

Between earth 

 

And the heavens. 

Some of them did drown, didn't they? 

 

Yesterday, in the river down south, the Rio Bravo. 

 

Condolences,

The woodpecker