Quito — Lisa Marie Basile

If you are patient
the estrellas y lunas
will slide down your telescope
into your mouth

That is what Señor Amaltano said about
his dreams in Quito,

that most perfect place in
all of Ecuador, and in all
of the World,

the center of all warm things,
sprinkled upon the equator, where
even giant monsters go
to weep

over symmetry.

Filed under: Lisa Marie Basile, Caper Literary Journal, Lisa Marie Basile, Quito

Abundance

Someone asks me why I cannot breathe,
they say my face is red,
usted mira todos rojos
and I tell them that
it all started to feel like a coffin
sometime last February

Cannot shake it, no?
I say no, no I cannot.
I do not mean to sound
rude, no, but
I have skeletons at my back
who are begging to finally sleep.

My mother weeps and
cleans the house with
my tears.

Filed under: Issue 2, Lisa Marie Basile