Poetry

Gustavo Minas photo

 

By

Norberto Franco Cisneros

 

 

 

Forever Love (A Poem For Valentine’s Day)

 

 

In my life’s poem, my best moment begins with your smile crushing the ramparts of my discontent. It was then my heart recognized Love did exist. Has there ever been such compassion in anyone’s demure smile? A smile found only in the faces of angels with the power to remove hidden pain.

 

My life’s poem begins with your unfettered love, different from my other experiences. My love surrenders to your benevolence. Your generous heart humbles me. Was there ever such a magnanimous heart in any human being containing such sweet innocence? Your delicate face shames DaVinci’s La Giaconda. Your delicate exquisiteness appears only once in some other millennium, not in my lifetime.

 

Your love transcended my self-inflicted macho pretenses. Before you came, I believed my own charades and verbosity. You in your wisdom saw through my spurious flamboyance, but acknowledged my essence. Even in my worst display of machoness you never left me, you stayed. I knew then I would always need to love you. You kept me grounded.

 

It is written at the end of my life’s poem that after death has taken me away, we will meet again to revive our commitment and rekindle the love we vowed to pursue far beyond the pointing fingers of Sister Old Age and the clutching, bony hands of Brother Death.  But then, isn’t that the essence of Forever Love? To the end, my love, we persevere and survive to Love.

 

Within the confined constant beating of my heart, I will always love you. I have always been desirous to see you happy and if providence sees fit to grant me one last humble wish it is to give you peaceful respite away from the daily drudgery of toil you have endured with me.

 

I, ever mindful my grasp in talent, intelligence, abilities and achievements far exceeded my reach, yet, it never turned me away from the nourishment your Love has given me and my never-ending Love for you.

 

 

 

 

You

 

 

Don’t listen to my words

Or look to understand my mind,

But listen to the whispers of fate

Urging you to know yourself.

 

Don’t think I’m using fake logic

Or think I’m using mind trickery

Think instead that I have come a long way

To acquaint you with life’s trials.

 

I’m not from here,

But I have good things to tell you

I know you are a good person, you know compassion

And possess a love that comes from a caring heart.

 

I bring you this –

love your fellow humans as long as forever exists,

But Love yourself as well

You need each other’s strength, courage and love to survive.

 

You are everybody’s destiny

You possess good karma

If you make a great fortune give it to those who need it;

Great fortunes corrupt the soul

 

In heaven’s dimension, trinkets and baubles have no value

You are an intricate part of the human whole

And indispensable;

A charitable life defines genuine value.

 

Know that regardless if no one around you cares

You do.

Always give the people the good that’s in you.

And that will make all the difference in the world.

 

 

 

 

Complainers In Tin Cans

 

 

Complaining of dying should not be vilified.

It is not a bad thing to be aware

the act of finality is also a part of life.

 

We all live in tin cans, some in small, others,

the lucky ones, live in majestic palaces,

but we all need one.

 

We enter our lives through a tunnel then emerge hoping for the best,

but really only existing in confusion manipulated by intellectually inferior,

self-serving, one-track minds who want to rule the world

and are hell-bent on ruling every aspect of our lives,

 

engulfing us in messy, logic mystifying, spirit debilitating stuff that

gives us feelings of impotence, often hurting enough to complain, but

their ignorance, callousness, arrogance and alternative facts rule the day.

True finality must have its joy-filled release at such times.

 

My advice to the complainers in their tin cans,

Take your damn life and live it!

Make passionate love and get stupid drunk!

And every now and then write a caring, benevolent poem with conviction

then go out and help change the world!

 

 

 

The Vortex

 

 

The vortex of my life

spins my head around

my mind can’t contain the inhumanity

their turbulent illogical excuses make me dizzy

 

The vortex is the GOD

I have been trying to avoid in my life

but He keeps pulling me back

I am helpless to escape

 

HE is in all of us

no matter how we act or think

HE is within us all

whether we accept HIM or not

 

I don’t know why some of us deny his existence

our ignorance is obscene

but HE does not relinquish us

since we are HIS forever

 

But in the light, the fight on this earthly plane is not over

the heavenly plane can wait,

the struggle must continue until all the devils in our midst are defeated

and the evil in their vacuous minds is vanquished

 

No matter where it is or where it lurks

whether in glass buildings gilded in fake gold

or congressional marbled hallways adorned in antique bronze

where the wealthy controllers live and thrive they must be held accountable

 

Their psyches house withered hearts and stopped-up brains,

these zombies walk the halls of congress making life difficult for the sickly,

the homeless, the hungry, the overtaxed middle-class and the elderly

there is still much work to be done

 

To cleanse the world of the avaricious many

who abscond with it all and still demand more

but are loathe to share the bounty they were given

by the Keeper of worlds and planets of this universe

 

All the world’s peoples are innocent in HIS eyes,

except the ones who walk with decayed hearts and putrid souls

and are destined to dwell in a fiery existence called Hell

for an infinity of eternities

 

 

 

 

The Alley Cat At Midnite

 

 

The storm thrashed the sides of the house

Trees bend to touch the ground

Rain drops fall heavily on fragile leaves

Gutters fill to overflowing

Spilling its slobber onto the dry streets

 

midnight clouds give no cover to exposed hearts

burdened with an intense need for a dose of love

but there is always the promise of her door opening

and the welcoming fragrance of roses and gardenias

 

colorful flowers sprinkled in her golden hair

greeting me in her sparkling tiny dress

stirring my fires already lit

seeking the warmth of the bright hue in her soft green eyes

 

she appears like a lover’s promise in spring

But promises are just like dreams, misleading fantasies,

my assurances are unable to compete with my past lies

and hunger for sex speeches don’t persuade

 

I hear the same tired sounds of rejection

words I know so well

the darkness of midnight invites me

to move on to seek satisfaction elsewhere…

 

 

 

 

Imaginary Fourth Reich

 

 

As the dark pursues the light to gobble it up

So do new lies chase old truths to obliterate them

In a government that lives on lies

their truth will always be suspect

 

Repeating lies over and over

to make them true

did not work for the 3rd Reich

and it won’t work for this imaginary 4th Reich

 

Some politicians and their business shills

do not recognize facts as truths

as honesty can break beautiful deals

Truth shines too bright a light on lies

 

Truth is majestic and outlives falsehoods

Falsehoods ultimately cower before truth

Lies eventually die from exposure

The light of integrity subdues all liars

 

Beware of those who make deals in dark places,

deceit hides in the pall of their schemes

demand transparency and the truth will be revealed!

and your reality will never be ephemeral or misleading.

 

 

 

 

 

Norberto Franco Cisneros

My poems have been published in the following publications: Indiana University Journal Chiricu; Avocet Review (Avocet Press); Snow Jewel (Grey Sparrow Press); Ilumen (Mouthfeel Press/ Sam’s Dot Publishing) and several others, including e-zines, Black Petals, Ruhatish and have been a Featured Poet in Poetry Soup