Chocolate kisses

She was good for me and I was good for her

(Or at least that’s what people said)

But one day I wondered how your lips would feel

And it ended up happening to me

It takes two pairs of lips to tango

And two pairs of eyes to mambo

Two pairs of legs to fly

But only a pair of hearts to fall

And we actually fell

Leaping through time like that girl

Who after smelling lavender scent

Got teleported to a faraway place

From where not even love spells

Could bring her back again

Since her darkness had already paled

Among chocolate kisses in wee-hour affairs

“I know I am but summer to your heart,

and not the full four seasons of the year.”

She wrote one not-so-fine spring day

Deception building an even higher wall around her

Despicable soul, incarnated probity!

Avant-garde of honest hypocrisy!

Lukewarm light suddenly switching cold!

Truthful heart pumping reptile blood!

It takes a pair of lips to say bye

And a pair of eyes to cry

A pair of legs to walk away

But just one heart to execrate

Now, while a tsunami crashes on my wall of lead

And an earthquake shakes the foundations of her creed

Our -yours and mine- ending links

Are already melting into a newborn string

To S. and her lips, for inspiring this.

The night is dark and full of hunters

The Prey is innocent and somewhat naive

It is not afraid of the unknown

It is willing to explore and seek

Beyond the realms of its own world

Tonight the Prey is in unfamiliar grounds

A land where it had never been before

Excited about the new lights and new sounds

It prepares itself to play loudly and enjoy

But the night is dark and full of hunters

And that, the Prey does not know

So it walks naively into the danger zone

Where the hunters are gathering around

Oh dear Prey, come back alive!

Do not look at the hunter in the eye!

For if you do, you could be paralyzed

By the skillful display of his disguise

Oh dear Prey, keep yourself safe!

Do not listen to his enrapturing decoy

For if you do, you will expose yourself

In a place where death indeed awaits

I have been there, just like them

So I know their tricks well

I also used to hunt in other times

And believe me, preys do fall into the trap

So dear Prey, choose wisely

Explore and seek, meet and learn

But don’t make the silly mistake

Of chasing reflections that shine too brightly

For they are ephemeral mirages

That make you wonder around in circles

Keeping your attention, like a stripping stripper

Until the hunter decides to pull the trigger

(A loud bang is then heard. Some tweets report it as a firecracker, 
others as a gunshot. It never makes it to the evening news nor the morning papers.)

(Thoughts of) A sleepy mind in Ngurah Rai

Endless halls

Canalizing flows

Of beings

Throwing some into the air

And catching others, hands bare

A liter of tears

Doesn't reach the floor

Until a spinning ballerina

Moonwalking all over the place

Leaps gracefully in the end

"This is the night of your life"

Says David

And thousands of almonds stare at me

Not seeing me, not seeing me

So Jenn takes everyone to ecstasy

Departures (Hong Kong International Airport)

An iron horse in white

Like a time machine

Cuts through space and time

Leaving behind

Human hives made of concrete

And a soya flavored sea

And I

Like a time knight

Fight against a cloud's lifespan

Leaving behind

Past and present

Future

To K.W., because fiction can become as close to reality as we want to.

Grandma

You, beautiful woman, who provided people with food and shelter

And irradiated happiness and energy like the Sun

You who saw the darkness of the clouded minds

But always kept your smile

You who were stronger than your body

And fought like a warrior, all the path

You who were always patient when I was away

And waited for me to come back to say good bye

Now it is time to spread your majestic wings

And rise like an eagle over the sea of clouds

It is time to see clearly again

So fly high towards heaven
And feel the warmth of the mid-summer sun

Quench your thirst with the blue in the sky

And flow with the wind, as one

And be sure, that those watching your beautiful flight

Will be smiling, will not be sad

Because you, beautiful woman, you

You loved until the end, and will be loved endlessly

This one is for Grandma, who started her flight on the morning of October 7th, 2012.

Unattached

Bright, cold night

Walking under powerful electric light

Watching cars overtaking

A rootless life.

Alien people

In strange cities

Of distant countries

Who become

New families

In well-known cities

Of closer countries

However, the wind again blows

So I spread my wings

And take off.

Dark, hot night

Walking under dim electric light

Watching cars overtaking

A rootless life.

And you came back

It was long ago when you left me, starting a trip that led you somewhere beyond my horizon. At first, I did not feel your absence. Of course, you always knew that I was a smart guy, so yes, I organized my life in order not to feel the void that you had left: Screens that didn’t go off for weeks, papers that overflowed storing capacities, black ink that turned invisible at the moment of signing, liquors that drowned my complicated thoughts, bodies that enraptured my instincts and made them work against my wills, old planes that took me to places where women had no rights and no cars, ships that carried me to perceived havens, tools that allowed me to go deeper, and deeper, and deeper, into the sea…

And then my ears popped and bled, havens turned ugly, ships deviated from their route crossing rivers of dark smelly water, the IMF squeezed my country like if trying to make juice out of a dried fruit, unemployment’s mouth grew bigger and bigger, swallowing entire families month after month; and my optimistic half died when it found out that 500 pesos, spaghetti and ice cream, were not enough to cure cancer. That was the first time that a child’s smile left me a bitter aftertaste.

So as the world started to teeter, I restarted my quest again.

I looked for you in a thousand dawns, in the seven seas, on the top of a mountain and in the early morning mist. But I could not touch you.

I looked for you in the church, at the mosque, at the synagogue and at the temple; and asked a priest, an imam, a rabbi and a monk. But they had never seen you.

I looked for you in the teachings of Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Locke, Hume and Kant. But I could not read you.

I looked for you in the notes of Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, John Coltrane and Jerry Mulligan. But still, I could not hear you.

I looked for you in a sip of the finest red wine, in a pinch of saffron, in a white truffle and in the lips of an Asian mermaid. But I could neither taste you, nor smell you.

However, one day, I took pencil and paper, and wrote this:

I tore your clothes off
like people do with the petals of a flower.
In order to see your soul,
but I didn't see it.

And all around us
-horizons of land and water-
everything, until the infinite,
got filled by an immense, lively essence.

And then I knew that, even though I could not see you, hear you, touch you, smell you or taste you; you were there.

You were back.

With me.

This one is for C. Thank you for bringing back my will.

Just by chance

A sleepless city in an eastern country.
A dark, small jazz bar.
An old piano played by an even older man.

A barely empty glass of whisky.
A pair of almond eyes on dark skin
that find a pair of green ones, just by chance.

The notes are following the rythm of their own music,
that magic sound they make with their lips
when they kiss.

For the first time
their souls are not worrying about the future
but enjoying the fleeting beauty of the present moment.

Thoughts are vanishing,
memories fading out.

Everything is becoming fuzzy and beautiful
and as He goes through this sweet December,
is finally able to forget.

Letter to Lethe

I am riding a horse named loneliness. Crossing endless meadows, I try to go back to you. I expose myself to the evil sun, wishing to be burned, trying to erase completely the leftovers inside me. I need to feel something again, even if that something is just pain.

You left too long ago, taking my battered heart with you. I've been told that after taking it to pieces, you sold them in a decadent pawnshop. To say the truth, I don't mind anymore, I'm lacking the strength and the means to take them back again.

Why I couldn't keep being that conformist boy who liked to chew gum carefreely? Why did I have to meddle in that far-off country? Could it be that I was jealous of Marco Polo? Or that I needed to see the Moon from a different latitude? Perhaps I was just too young, to keep good love from going wrong.

And now I'm leaving again, but this time heading nowhere, with no Tinkerbell or Cicerone. No more maps, no more fairy dust for me. This time I'm abandoning everything, I'm letting myself fall on Nothing's arms, hoping to find a path that takes me back to the Origin, and tells me where is the pawnshop where my heart was sold off cheaply.

When I find it, I will pick up every single piece that you dismantled during that cold February. I will put them together again, and after that, I will destroy them with the hammer of oblivion. From that moment on, I won't feel anything. I will flow together with the wind and like water, I will adapt to the shape of my container, without changing myself.

However, I know that the very painful part of this, is that you won't cause me pain anymore. And that what I will miss the most, is missing you.