A poem about letting go and being happy in the process.

Whole

Shadowless smile

Beckoning through the night

The double walking backwards

Hesitant,

A flickering smoky hand on a rusty wall,

Tipped by an inky spot

Where the whole closes its door.

Sergio Torres Martínez, "Whole" from Bestiary of Shadows. https://rdcu.be/dx61U

Copyright © 2024 by Sergio Torres Martínez.

A poem about nonsensical racial identity.

Skinned Can

 The skin, a boundary,

Insulating me from the Other,

Colors my identity,

Soaring at stake,

Entrusted in the rain,

My only true bond,

Or am I a transparent observer?

A voter, blue?

A breath, red?

A partisan, white?

A soldier, green?

A motley Mockingbird?

(February 10, 2024)

Sergio Torres Martínez, "Skinned Can" from Bestiary of Shadows. https://rdcu.be/dx61U

Copyright © 2024 by Sergio Torres Martínez.

A poem about blissful solitude and contemplation. Grin

I inhabit the underside of the mirror,

Ride along the reflection of the shop’s window

A grin with a limp smile,

As blissful as the mute

Solitude of the night.

Sergio Torres Martínez, "Grin" from Bestiary of Shadows. https://rdcu.be/dx61U

Copyright © 2024 by Sergio Torres Martínez.

A poem to the ancestors.

Phylogeny

Don’t call my name!

It’s mine, and mine alone,

A gift from my legion cells,

Passed on,

I keep the ivory gates

Of my being

Slipping away into THE OTHERNESS.

(February 04, 2024)

Sergio Torres Martínez, "Philogeny" from Bestiary of Shadows. https://rdcu.be/dx61U

Copyright © 2024 by Sergio Torres Martínez.

A poem describing the travails of being yourself.

System

Edgily touching

The contour of the system

In the wake of night,

The qualms of identity and oblivion

Spur the soul’s fingers.

(February 04, 2024)

Sergio Torres Martínez, "System" from Bestiary of Shadows. https://rdcu.be/dx61U

Copyright © 2024 by Sergio Torres Martínez.

A poem on identity and self-assurance. Comeback

 My likeness on the wall,

Seen through the lenses of a colorless drosophila,

Fading representations

Cut out ad infinitum in empty words,

Stacked in dendritic rings,

A burned rank,

A scar under the bark.

Sergio Torres Martínez, "Comeback" from the book Bestiary of Shadows. https://rdcu.be/dx61U

Copyright © 2024 by Sergio Torres Martínez.

"Unnamed" is a poem describing the pervading problem of racism in the US. Unnamed

The shadow grows tall

Upon your white restrooms.

The fist of the concrete voice

Bringing down the ghost riders.

Deep in the South

Tears are more bitter than the clank

Of the shackles tolling in the

Skull of the olive-clad general.

Sergio Torres Martínez, "Unnamed" from the book Bestiary of Shadows. https://rdcu.be/dx61U

Copyright © 2024 by Sergio Torres Martínez