SOLEDAD

(A bilingual poem—4 decades in LA)

Solo, al principio, a la mitad y al final
Alone, at all stages in my life
Prestando siempre atención a todo lo irrelevante
Ignoring always the most essential
Persiguiendo siempre a la siempre elusiva felicidad
Tomando caminos equivocados, desviados, perdidos y escondidos
Finding friends anywhere, everywhere, hundreds of them
Different colors, levels, religions, good and bad, smart and not
Sueños olvidados, abandonados, desdeñados e ignorados
Sacrificados e injustificadamente eliminados de mi mente
Procrastinados por la ceguera de la eterna juventud
Friends, real, false, provisional, a few remain, some disappeared, most are gone
Others are forgotten, some I miss, some sincerely
Alone remains, alone is loyal. What did I find, while looking for nothing?
Mi rompecabezas está ahora incompleto,
Por buscar no sé qué, perdí no sé qué tanto
Triste tristeza, infeliz felicidad, en los escombros solo encuentro mi soledad
But the only precious thing I’ve ever had was my mind,
Uneducated, unspoiled, uncontaminated, uncorrupted
Always loyal and faithful
My only true friend,
My beautiful mind.
Beautiful to me
Anyway

Edmundo Barraza

Visalia, CA.

Mar-2012

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Author: Edmundo Barraza

Edmundo Barraza was born in Durango. He grew up in Torreon, Mexico. He now lives in Los Angeles, Ca. Even though he became an American Citizen in 1990, he still considers Torreon his hometown. He was seven when he saw his first movie. The screen was the exterior wall of a church at the top of a hill. A Spanish film about a baby left outside a church by his mother. He never stopped watching movies after that. He began writing short stories in 2009. His love for cinema pushed him to turn his own stories into scripts and then to film. In 2015 he shot his first short film, "The Corpse Is Alive," which won thirteen nominations at different film festivals worldwide. "Drugs And Chocolates" and "The Psychic" have also won numerous awards. Some of his favorite film directors include Luis Buñuel, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, Sam Peckinpah, Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and many others. His favorite music includes The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Pink Floyd, The Clash, Temptations, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, and many others. "Playing pool, listening to rock music, and having a beer is great, but reading a book, writing a story, or watching a good film is even better. I hate guns and evil political leaders, racist people too. I love good people. Children are the most precious thing in the world. I aim to shoot a feature film based on one of my stories." Edmundo is married to Consuelo Barraza. They have a daughter and a son, Michelle Solano and Carlos Barraza.

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