Posts by Jonathan Gonzalez
Mirrors Justified
Superficial.
You don’t deserve the attention.
A former constant struggle
should never have met my struggling lips.
You once craved it.
Now you have plenty,
but you’ll never get full
of glancing eyes and lustful winks.
You’re nothing but aware.
You don’t deserve the attention.
My honesty taken advantage
of something bigger than you, I hope.
My ego branded;
my statue still stands.
Yet you still throw coins in the my fountain,
a simple piece of the plan.
Ninja
Like a book that’s been drowned,
I rip the pages to pieces as I pull them apart.
I’m just trying to read the words,
but damage has closed the message.
Some ink drips out on the table,
from beneath the small cracks that are left,
but it’s unrecognizable.
A bayonet sits right above your lips
and it hurts me every time we meet to kiss.
Broadus
I am no doctor.
No magic pill here.
I know I came to fix you,
but I don’t know how to heal.
So, I’m on way to walk these plains
until I fall asleep under the trees
that help shade the mountains,
where I can drink from the river.
Until I awake once more,
and pull the grass from the hill
that I climb.
I will reach the top.
Take your tourniquet;
tie it tight.
I walk down my winding road
and may never cease my journey.
Paper Mate
Sometimes I look both ways at green lights,
as if I expect for the cars
to come flying
through the intersection.
Or I feel bad for emptying
the world that I took down
myself, with two hands,
but with good intentions.
But no one could ever touch me.
I up here alone looking down on you,
wishing you had wings to fly
away from all that kills inside.
To a new location
It hangs by a needle
on the blackboard.
The image captured
so well in four frames.
Look at the smile
I used to get by.
Our lips,
bang bang.
A year later
I couldn’t have told you
that I wouldn’t be able
to return to this place with you.
In your corner
There was this door that hid
behind the vines that hugged
the brick wall
at the back of the yard.
It kept the words locked
like a safe. You’re hiding
from me. You are
far away.
January 10, 2017
As I look down upon the valley floor,
I can’t help but ask why
you got the short end of the stick.
I could see
before you,
But I didn’t experience
before you.
I wish I could trade spots baby
because you deserve more
than was ever given to you.
That bed has my name written all over it.
Lucky is all I was
and am today.
I haven’t earned anything
that I love to claim.
Your star doesn’t match the constellation in the sky
“Keep letting him do the talkin’.
See where that gets ya.
Back to where ya started:
where everyone believes ya.”
But they shouldn’t.
Nah, they should be careful.
They can’t predict
the next move I’ll make.
Sieze
It started with the seam,
before it moved to the collar,
and before I knew it,
my shirt was on fire.
Sometimes it takes a perspective
from the bottom of the mountain
to realize how tall you were
when you stood at the top.
I can almost feel the passport
in my hand,
clutched tightly.
Oh, this is humbling.
I’m not ready for it,
But my head is looking north,
and once I reach the top again
I’m never coming back down.
This program was brought to you by ALCOA.
Light me up bartender.
They don’t seem to understand
the importance of a good story.
Turn the jazz up a bit, would ya?
I’m trying to find a balance here.
I’m conniving the best way to bring him down.
I don’t see the other side here.
Editorializing it is,
while I feign his intelligence.
Don sure would’ve been proud,
as I was of him.
But I’m not one to say it.
Pour me another bartender.
I’m waiting on tomorrow’s paper.
The intimacy of black and white
fills your home every night
at 6 o’clock,
and I’m the one you’re watching.