Category: Radical Prose

Superficial

Your mother should know.
The things that matter you ignore
Your ego is not your strength nor your asset
Superficiality is your best quality
Your style, never your own
Aversion to sincerity
Your favorite answer is “is complicated” ’cause you have no clue
Your sterile concern, I will not try to discern
Your criticism, keep it concealed
Your advice, keep it confined deep in your mind
Nurture your torture
Nourish your hatred and wrath
Your caring, warmhearted soul conflicts with your perverse desires
Under cover of genuine intentions
You use your virtues to crush humble feelings
You pulverize enthusiasm with indignant anger
And destroy modest goals with sarcastic compliments
That only reflects a sadistic disdain
If I love you, you laugh
If I hate you, you smile
And if I ignore you, you’re dead
Guess what I wish for you?
Your mother should know.

The End

Edmundo Barraza
Lancaster, Ca. Nov-29-2015

Lost

Young and daring freedom-loving fearless punk
Addicted to excesses school, he flunked
Found love early. The free bird also found a cage
Never-ending bliss decreased he then turned to rage

Went to Vegas, risked it all, and lost even the house
Defeated, he returned feeling smaller than a mouse
The pride he also lost but one thing he gained . . . a divorce
He lost his mind and soul. There’s nothing worse

Pawned his ring and bought a gun
Put it against his temple now he’s gone
Better learn a lesson, my son
The simple truth is I’m a bad example. Now I’m in hell
Just concentrate and do the opposite, and you’ll be well

The End


EDMUNDO BARRAZA
Visalia, CA. 04-05-2012




Brothers

Born from the same genes and innermost
Sperm and ovaries, root and soil
Equal and yet so different
Unequal and so indifferent
Same blood both ways
Separate litter, separate mind, soul, and all else too
Nursed and bred by the same hand and rules
Heartless and faked yet sometimes
Humble and straight
Some handsome outside
And handsome inside
Some pretty in and out
Although not all the time
You could forget you are good
When you remember you could be mean and cruel
And all the while remain impeccably firm
As you convince yourself how flawless you are
However, you never say it
Clearly, you have your favored precious
Thank God they are interchangeable
Not as a son or a daughter
Where you could never decide or proclaim
Who your favorite is
Fraternal love eternal and ephemeral
It could be applied in the same sentence
Pleasure and pain, love, and indifference
Love them all is your final recourse
A gift from God could also mean
A Satan’s curse
Nevertheless, the plague can eventually fade away
But you will never dissuade Satan of course
Relatives, kin or blood, you can never escape
Like it or not you are stuck
You cannot repel or refuse
My best advice, enjoy and ignore
Alternatively.

The End


Dedicated to my seven brothers and sisters. I love you all



“I sought my soul
But my soul I could not see
I sought my God
But my God eluded me
I sought my brother
And I found all three.” 
– William Blake


Edmundo Barraza

Visalia, Ca. 05-28-2012

It’s Like . . .

Killing an ant with a nuclear bomb. Exaggeration
Stoning a woman right after she’s been raped. Abomination
Creating the final solution to exterminate a wandering nation
Inexplicable and contradictive. Killing cancer with radiation
Tormenting and torturing without mitigation

Crying at the bottom of the sea to drown your sorrow
Fighting foreign wars all over the world in a continuous row
Committing suicide today for things that will disappear tomorrow
Saint Sebastian expiring and still receiving another arrow
Asking money from a beggar when he has nothing to borrow

God never lies. You can’t insist
Begging God to make me believe he doesn’t exist
Asking God to become friends with Satan so evil can cease to exist
Declining access to hell even if I persist or desist
Satan always lies. He can’t resist

There’s no solution or substitution for disillusion
There’s no compensation or restitution for revolution
Brain surgery is needed for a mind so narrow
And heavy and impossible to carry in a wheelbarrow
Angry and nonconformist, I raise my fist
Only to be censored, disqualified, and dismissed.

The End



EDMUNDO BARRAZA
Visalia, CA. 04-11-2012







Global Suicide

I was a little pessimistic when I wrote this little thing in 2017. Is there a reason to be optimistic now?

God has left the building and the planet too.

Hurricanes dance in the ocean. Hurricanes cohabit with earthquakes.

The heat is hotter.

Walls built with tiny hands will stop refugees but not bombs.

Children expelled from paradise. Limbo kids between heaven and hell.

But which is which?

The ax forgets, the tree remembers.

The forest never wins.

Mother nature is dead.

Father time has expired

Without a nation or destination, refugees flee in mass and cry in pain.

Destitute and dilute in the melting pot.

The entire political spectrum secretes excrement.

No one is totally innocent.

Hatred must be contagious.

Dust to dust. We’ll end up where we must.

By far, humans are the most dangerous animals.

Tragedy and catastrophe are our deserving fate.

Hell broke loose.

We are the victims of our crimes.

God lost interest.

I’m scared, but not constantly.

I’ve died before.

The smarter you are, the more you care and the more you suffer.

A world in despair with nothing to spare.

Where are all the saints and martyrs?

Fire burns ice.

Irrational skeptics.

Pathetic leaders are chosen by us.

Democracy expired a long time ago.

Never lose hope.

Votes don’t count when you don’t win.

The minority requires only one more in a draw.

Did parenthood ever have a plan?

Should feminism be only attached to females?

And machismo to men?

We’re descending into a black hole of our creation.

Protests are in vain when evil prevails.

Modern times are over.

Did the decline of civilization begin with a big bang?

Or with mud and a rib?

Right after we take our first breath, we begin to die.

But I know the end will never arrive if I die first.

The End

Edmundo Barraza

Lancaster, Ca. Sept-10-2017