Live Encounters Poetry & Writing May 2024.
I Hear Her Voice, poems by Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal.
I Hear Her Voice
On freshly mopped floors,
barefoot, she enters
early in the morning.
I hear her voice from my room.
She likes to play with my mind.
If she had claws, I am sure
she would skewer me like a bear.
In the wind
I hear her voice. No medicine can stop her.
Shrinking
I feel my eye shrinking,
weeping without tears.
A sea is raging in its iris.
It whimpers and vanishes.
I feel my teeth shrinking.
They bite my tongue in cheek.
I turn the other cheek
and my teeth disappear.
I lie naked on a slab.
Maybe it’s just a dream.
The years have come and gone.
I am being cut into pieces.
I cry inside.
My face is hollow.
I set myself on fire.
The smell is less than glorious.
I swim with the fishes,
a formless corpse.
An angel draws near,
two thousand angels follow.
My spirit surrenders.
It flees the scene.
I am carried away by the wind.
A fallen angel follows.
I push the devil away.
It smells of sulfur.
I do not let it condemn me.
I fly with the crows.
In a frenzied tone, I sing.
What would you do?
My hands are shrinking.
I cannot tie my shoes.
© Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal
Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal, born in Mexico, lives in California and works in Los Angeles in the mental health field. He is the author of Raw Materials (Pygmy Forest Press), Before and Well After Midnight (Deadbeat Press), Peering into the Sun (Poet’s Democracy), Songs for Oblivion (Alternating Current Press/Propaganda Press), and Make the Water Laugh (Rogue Wolf Press). Kendra Steiner Editions has published 8 of his chapbooks, the latest one, Make the Light Mine. Luis graduated from Cal Poly Pomona, earning a degree in Finance, Real Estate, and Law. He earned his Master’s degree in Public Administration from Cal State Northridge University.