Two Sunday Poems By Dini Karasik

Sunday. Open the newspaper, have a cup of coffee, see that some great poetry has come over the airways. Life is good at Zombie Logic Review. Two by Dini Karasik.



YOU AND THE GOVERNMENT CHEESE

I’m eating last night’s beans 
for breakfast 
con agua de melón 
left on the counter too long. 

In between bites, 
I sip the mix of juicy fruit 
and Rio Grande river water, 
sugar and sacred tears shed 
by faraway mountains lonely 
because we no longer sing to the stars. 

I’m a sad mountain, too, 
only I cry criticisms
and smoke cigarettes 
and listen to the echoes 
of when we first met.
I think happy 
is a prehistoric howl 
bouncing along the unseen 
canyon between us. 

Still, I made a meal 
to sustain the shell of you. 
But the cut of meat 
has puckered next 
to a mound of ossified rice.

The beans have been out all night 
(son borachos como tú). 
They are cold now 
with little bits of bacon 
buoying in the broth.

When you walk through the door, 
I’ll fix you a sandwich. 
You and the government cheese 
will dare me to complain.

*********

estrangement

those northern lights 
blazing a black horizon
illuminate nothing

just a metaphysical sky
like a mind full of words
you never write 

tell me why 
you won’t
sing to me.

no, don’t

you must think 
this winter is colder 
than the one before

i couldn’t agree more

estrangement 
is a poem
you will never read

but I write 
tear drops 
on the page
for you to see

such sad memories

there are many
heavy on the scales
tilting you
away from me

as i watch you spill 
like a setting sun
over the edge 
of a lifetime


Dini Karasik is a Mexican-American writer and lawyer. Her poetry has appeared in Crack the Spine and she has work forthcoming in The Más Tequila Review and Kweli Journal. You can follow her on Twitter @DosGildas or on her writing blog:Dini Karasik.