2 June 2002 | Vol. 2, No. 2
Cold Fire
– for Iram Hernandez
Once again, we find
ourselves under the
anarchy of starlight
while our dreams get
caught in the tangled
dance of branches.
Drinking glasses filled
to the rim with
Bacardi & Diet Coke.
A drink to calm the
nerves, to straighten
out our crooked smiles.
You mentioned Jesus
hanging like a red lantern
in the window, like
a sparrow dead on a limb.
On the last drag of a
Camel cigarette you say
the end is near, that your
azaleas & hollyhock can
feel the cool earth dying.
Like irritated blotches of skin,
the world is all blood & nail.
It's all to do with shadows
holding the horizon, all
to do with ghosts kneeling
in the woods. There's no
cracking of the genetic code,
no death in the womb.
We are in the last quarter of
the down & low, where we
deny worship of dark totems
& bleed ourselves into rapture.
About the author:
Radames Ortiz is the author of a chapbook of poems, Between Angels & Monsters. Founding editor of Coyote Magazine: Bringing Literature and Art Across Borders and former editor of the Bayou Review, the literary journal for the University of Houston Downtown. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Exquisite Corpse, Pacific Review, Gulf Coast, the Mesquite Review and San Antonio Current. Winner of the 2000 Fabian Worsham Award for Poetry and fellowships from the Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets at Bucknell University and Voices Writing Workshop at the University of San Francisco. He is also a recipient of a 2002 Individual Artist Grant from the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County.
For further reading:
See the complete list of work by Radames Ortiz at 42opus. Browse the contents of 42opus Vol. 2, No. 2, where "Cold Fire" ran on June 2, 2002. List other work with these same labels: poetry, editors' select.
