mónica teresa ortiz
poem for the stridentists II
my lover has a lover and I am
pumping gas, repeating the opening
lines to Ozymandias King of Kings
the melodic rumblings of semi-trucks
choking the usual electric
prairies Manuel Maples Arce
calls love a simple dice game my heart
galvanized metal pressed and pounded
to resemble an organ, a forgotten
absurdity of stridentism my lover
loves me and I languish for
the cinematic effect of touch because
now we have buried romance and gassed
our love to launch gallantly at buildings
we want to burn with the fervor of strikes and
labor stoppages fed by applause
of thousands who can’t carry a picket
sign and the Stripes on the corner outside where
I wait for the tank to fill traffic accrues
at the stoplight and a not so luminous
but rather nauseating stench of cattle
spreads through the streets a noxious gas that
replaces air and sometimes
in the afternoons unto the evenings
my rheumatic heart drifts to the ocean
spending nights with my love while my eyes
stay alert to the decay along the
boulevard I dream of sculpting nocturnes
and sharing champagne inches from the Atlantic
not crafting obituaries and pouring
out my shipwrecked memories stranded bare
on a bony summer day
because this is supposed to be a poem
the clone version of me carries copper pennies in their palms as if
that is enough to pay the ferryman
I hope I would recognize doppelgangers of beloveds
meaty replicas of ourselves
mercurial objects
fleeting elegies
show me again how we kiss just to be sure you aren’t a copy
of a copy we walk in the town
the abundance of snake plants poking out windows on empty streets
I have a mouthful of sand spilling
out time into the salty gulf beached dinghies house lovers hiding
from the sun
a map transmorphing into flying bone
what lives in the tender thrum below
marbles of myself collapse
waves roll like lava over Pompeii
during sunset
66 million-year old blue space feathers
now a simulacrum of scales
we watch a brown pelican hunt fish
reaching into the mouth hoping to snatch a meal
from god
mónica teresa ortiz is a poet, memory worker, and critic born, raised, and based in Texas. the author of Book of Provocations (Host Publications 2024), mónica unconditionally calls for the liberation of Palestine and all oppressed people, in our lifetime.