witnessing some

by Roberto Lavidez

some are in prison

some run

to another country

some are still roaming

the streets with blood

in their hands

some of them are

rewarded with 

petty spoils for

each head

some local authorities

profited from 

massacres

seizing slain people’s

land and possessions

some are hiding weapons

some new recruits

are being trained

some regimes 

are unlikely

to stop atrocities

some policies 

are aimed at the 

systematic destruction

of a people

some militias engage

in pure criminal activities

some rebels 

fabricate things

some revolution 

is simply replacing 

one type of

oppressive regime

with another

some revolutionaries

mimic the abuses 

against which 

they rebelled

some aid workers 

and church leaders 

are accused

of complicity in some

state-sponsored terror

some neighbors

slaughtered their neighbors

some colleagues 

bludgeoned their colleagues

some doctors poisoned 

their patients

some schoolteachers

maimed their students

some priests burned 

their parishioners

some fathers stabbed their

wives and children

some witnesses survived

to identify their attackers

at the trial

some mass murderers are

acquitted and released  

some survivors

will remember

some will forget

some will deny

it ever happened

©robertolavidez2013

it sees itself seeing

By Roberto Lavidez

doors are opened

structures

are broken down

an insurmountable

obstacle present

within the intimate

compass of daily life

created a fissure

through which poured

the pent-up anxieties

weeping turned to

high-pitched babbling

making own interpretations

of a Hieronymus Bosch

canvas peopled with

fearsome monsters

blood hounds searching

through ritualized acts

among the density of signs

run up into the hills that

sediment expectations

about the future

it sees and

it sees itself seeing

graves of the disappeared

over collective memory

of immobile men

dressed in striped clothes

with numbers on

their left breasts

at the heart

of a prolonged

and complex struggle

they were

the undesirables

in a journey

crammed with viciousness

transported in a cattle

boxcar of a long train

there were times that

it seemed they were

the chosen ones

entering the

witness box

to speak the truth

quoting various

references

from the scripture

the gentle warmth

that radiates from

the flickering flames

makes them see

themselves rising

from the chimney

looking down

at participants

keeping such a

critical eye on

old ideas

yet blinking at

the process

©robertolavidez2013

disaster voyeur

by Roberto Lavidez

disorder and despair for

the irreparably destitute

cannot be concisely

condensed into a nutshell

unattainable bread

peace and land

challenge the validity of

the most venerable realities

scorning the unfettered

freedom to think and

dimming the lights of

the enlightenment

to throw oneself

intelligently into the

complexity of materiality

combing out all the

knots and conundrums

if shot through with

contradictory urges

and rationalizations

and a culpable lack

of empathy for the poor

would be treading on 

an endless series 

of pot holes and

deep corrugations

charting a place kept

in the dark until the

bulldozers move in

to carve out a 

vast receptacle

of wretchedness

thieves and cheats

have all been among

bedfellows of disaster

groupies and peeping

toms of calamities

sycophants massaging

destitution of the land

after long years of

colonial rule

racing toward

superfluous riches

under hardened feet

the regime reaches

the masses with

boondoggles

white elephants

and costly delusions

beyond remedy

the unmetaphorizable

bondage of the victims

and the grief of the

vanquished appealing

to the lowest instincts

to purge existing

institutions of its

most flagrant inner

contradictions

while keeping 

a watchful eye on

its own blindness

©robertolavidez2013

behind masks

by Roberto Lavidez

it was raining torrents

outside the hotbed

of secret societies 

a play of cries

and whispers

and chattering 

crippled by the

bondage of speech

messages of encrypted

text retrieved from

round the necks

of dead birds

cruelly hanged

on piano wire

castigating the

hypocrisy of

bourgeois morality

behind masks

of the real world

truth may never

be known

church bells rung

bonfires lit

psalms sung in

thanksgiving panacea

for all ills

misery

class conflict

and alienation

Marxists

running around

like chickens

without heads

fascinated with

stockpiling of

nuclear weapons

playing a dangerous

cat-and-mouse game

regenerating dramas

of the human psyche

the tragic unlikelihood

of peaceful coexistence

persistence of

the old order

behind masks of

death

magic

and the supernatural

truth may never

be known

wars were

to be won

by a display of

brutal strength alone

quick to detect the

scent of vulnerability

outside the gates of

concentration camps

where terror is

dragged by the hair

back into darkness

abandoning the

quest of Prometheus

chained to a rock

for eternity

agonizing

behind masks

©robertolavidez2013

        

dialectic tear gas

by Roberto Lavidez  

tapping 

the collective

consciousness

the intellectual

catches a glimpse

of the groundlessness

of our beliefs

and practices

determinable faiths

of various messiahnisms

are caught in the web

of contradicting stories

most dangerous

is religion

when it conceives itself

as a higher knowledge

announcing 

to the natives

far and wide

that civilization

was dawning

snatching moments

of conversation

in a disruptive 

intrusion

on the 

unsettled present

firing tear gas

and rubber bullets

at protesters

whose agony was

so great that their

tongues hang out

thoroughly

disenchanted

disappointed

and disheartened

marching and

collapsing in 

the soaked grass

surrounded

by wild violets 

and the

carnivalesque 

singing

of skylark

yearning 

to avoid

repeating

past mistakes

history affords few

happy endings

in a parody of ritual

an ominous warning

about where 

dreams of empire 

can lead

has strained

and loosened 

the connecting links

by which hope

is passed

continual combat 

is always part

of exploring faces

from which one

turns with an

involuntary shudder 

of repulsion

immobilized

lacking freedom

and movement

inhospitable to the

coming of the other

intelligible paradigm

from the labyrinth

of cognition

just another bit

of injustice

in unjust  

little vacuous

self-defeating world

unromantic

toward

the dialectic

machine

©robertolavidez2013

brief passage

by Roberto Lavidez

the atmosphere

in a brief passage

of this world of woes

heavy with allusion

and unspoken charges

unavailing quest of

familiar faces and

old landmarks

surrounding acres of

meadows and woods

under large billowing

clouds of gray smoke

exerting an impetus

for action constantly

interrupting a continuous

flow of attention

resulting in many

paradoxes and

contradictions

habituated to the

dissipation and

licentiousness

of the town

liberating itself from

mundane concerns

guarding its logical

portals and

counterintuitive

mysteries

unresolved

unreconciled

unassimilated

strength to

make up

lost ground

a frantic bid

to a grand end

justifying intricate

controversial means

rewinding the spool

of wasted life

perpetuating itself

trying to fit a square

peg into a round hole

simulating fascination

with banalities

fitting to an

age of giants

unfertile sparseness

encapsulating the

extraordinary

ordinariness

showing corpses

beneath euphemisms

blubbering apologies

idiotic excuses

overwhelmed by

the egregious

cultural imperialism

sprouting up like

out-of-season daffodils

hasty in trundling

the innocent

toward their

doom

©robertolavidez2013

lost dungeon

by Roberto Lavidez

illusions

a man creates

for himself

are lost in a dungeon

of narrowing prison

a pecking order

to the benefit

of the former

and the detriment

of the latter

soon made

itself manifest

summoning the

image of once

earthly paradise

where urban gangs

began springing up

like serpents

crawling on asphalt

into a battered taxi

reflecting the driver’s

inner condition

lurched from

the flow of traffic

taking a casual view

of his transgression

piecing together

years of incriminating

evidence beckoning

the unfallen innocence

a task besieged with

contraries cleverly

concealed behind

dummy walls

becoming a beast

by losing the power

of reason

struggling between

warring elements

within his soul

rattled to a halt

slipping new batteries

into a fading flashlight

freshly empowering

fallen knowledge in

the garden of delight

offering a way round

all dissenters inheriting

very unsatisfactory

working conditions

of the self into

unified action told

with a multiplicity

of diverse episodes

compounding excesses

which could result from

unchecked enthusiasm

taking into consideration

all remaining barriers

and large disparities

across mental states

provoked with noisy

demonstrations

and obstacles

aimed at assessing

its empirical relevance

to a rising mountain

touching the stars

of inner wishes

©robertolavidez2013

to linger

By Roberto Lavidez

to linger on the battle-field

among the wounded

to long for unanimity

and self-abasement

to enable a reasonable man

reach a reasoned conclusion

to sustain by intuition

the many blind alleys

to rise above superstition

and wishful thinking

to hunger for innate meaning

to survive the bitter cold

of winter in the atmosphere

of increasing terror

to prevent oneself from sinking

into stagnation and despair

to loosen the noose being

pulled tighter

to do the sort of thing that

only a provocateur would do

to nourish the insatiable

craving for the company

of equals

to learn to conceal timidities

and grudges by disguises

to bring fruits to wanderers

as promised by the philosopher

to listen to the small fry

caught in the toils of the state

to rethink the whole process

covered by the glamour

of patriotism

to question the mission of

empire builders bringing

enlightenment into dark places

to instill a spirit of inquiry

in place of unfounded dogmas

to resist the solicitations

of idol builders who worship

projectiles curving in the air

to endure the unbroken

sequence of frequencies

to live in the moment like

a bird in a tree calling

the cyclic motions of the

heavenly bodies

to witness

the final consequence

of a mechanistic universe

©robertolavidez2013

out of synch

by Roberto Lavidez

the hammer

and sickle

the stars

and stripes

watches falling

out of synch

countless

children

incessantly
running

and jumping
rapidly
changing

velocities
numberless
galaxies

zipping along

mysterious quantum

possibilities

inflicting

tortured psyches

on the innocent

unborn

shimmering
waves
rising with the sun

we are becoming

a pastiche

of cultures

and influences

wilderness

caves

mountain tops

an existential drama

with the absurd

providing spark

of a dawning

realization

intuitive notion of

how things unfold

putting man

on the moon

radically altered

the balance

of forces

creating spaces

in the imagination

to flee to

a receptacle

where battles

of ambivalence

and doubt

take place

horse trading

on the field

of divided

consciousness

hoping with

fingers crossed

they curve

in the service

of gravitational force

a buffer between

primordial state

of overall chaos

and the cosmos

of the mind

erased from

the equations

of general relativity

tremendous

accumulated damage

a form of

ancient tyranny

finds

free thought

a menace

ascending

in smoke

dignifying

the uproar by

pandering

there is

no solitude

for those

who seek

meaning

©robertolavidez2013

endless recycle

by Roberto Lavidez

extracting truth

from crooks

in the many

conflicts of an

uneven world

the progress

of society has

a deep and

habitual gloom

mass manipulators

bear the quality

of organized cruelty

through hypnotic

instrument

of deception

uprooting

an economically

unprofitable

peasantry

sadly lacking

in the capacity

for pregnant futures

solidarity of

men in a world

of the efficient

does not renounce

the threat of

castration

in the minds

of demoralized people

craftily sanctioning

the demand for

endless recycling of

imperialistic adventure

treating the symptom

of indolence through

the whole panoply of

psychological disturbances

penetrating powers of

the ascetic with disease

of unreflective thinking

based on survival

the unconscious colossus

proceeds blindly on

its course of annihilation

regression from

civilization

to savagery 

disturbs the

dream state

of the civilized

waking the

savage longing

for the most

ephemeral

of social exchanges 

or for the lost

primal state of man

who may be closer

to being devoured by

wild beast but

more than pleased

to survive the

abominations of

sentimental polemic

against his thought

©robertolavidez2013

verbosity of banality

By Roberto Lavidez

somewhere

on the pathway

driven by

unlovely impulses

a gap opens up

that the imagination

can’t fill

the calm rationalist

perennially moved 

by high ethical ideas 

is caught off guard 

in persecuting

delusions of grandeur

and allowing

authoritarianism

inflict torment

to the powerless

impaled

unforgettably

on the skewer

of satire

there have been

pitiable whimpers 

and loud squeals

from the injured 

master

of nonmoronic

oxymoron

remembering things 

other people

tend to forget

he keeps it there

as if it were 

a splinter

of shrapnel

in an endless

journey

through the caves

and hallways of

dreamland

the architects

of the mind

are succeeding

in their  

verbosity

to interfere

with the eloquence

of wordlessness

reducing

once vital language

to a compendium

of banalities

elevating diction

multiplying mirth

its fuel that fed

the flames

was superstition

of the most

unsophisticated kind

flaws transmuted

into a living song

unapologetically

giftless tyrant

takes charge

of the empire

and the primitive

shackling

of the choked up

individual

there is nowhere

for the victim to run

he sees a cargo

of asylum seekers

from the

sinking vessel

winding through

the fact

the myth

in his head

©robertolavidez2013

stripping

melody

from prose

by Roberto Lavidez

black hawk hanging

motionless in the sky

fuming about cat’s

intolerable yowling

scarred, battered,

ancient umbrella

had bitter fights with

catastrophic storms

spinning wheel

screeching

unencumbered by

metaphysical junk

yelling coarse

challenges and

obscenities at

decadence in

every circle

deep waters set

little worlds apart

divide voices of

defiance and

profiteering of

great misery

and ruin

whirlwinds’

horrible blows

to faith and hope

hailed by the

uncomprehending

clouds with

a western face

ludicrously posturing

around the campfire

beseeching the

burning of books

a holy necessity

later expressing

religious zeal by

burning its readers

stripping melody

from prose

and yet failing to

douse of flickering

words  which would

gather at the door

instantly unbolted

and flung wide

for pages to be

rewritten with fire

those who were

reasonable have

survived to read

without the

melodious wailing

those who were

passionate have

kept alive even the

cat’s yowling

between the lines

©robertolavidez2013

motherland

burning

By Roberto Lavidez

storm

blows away

the sand

motherland

burning

out of

existence

a house

sleeps

on the

hillside

dreaming

puerile

dreams

bright

as the sun

lucid

as moonlight

yet out of

touch

with the

world

hewers

of wood

drawers

of water

cried out

in the vast

and boundless

celestial

space

of helpless

anguish

hangers-on

many of them

had gone

like sheep

to an expedition

into the

unknown

spineless

herd

of victims

loaded with

emotional

freight

they are

waiting

to be

hounded

to their

destruction

the marrow

sucked out

of their

bones

flowing

across

mountains

and hills

over sea

and rivers

black stone

over the edge

of the wall

giving way

to mounting

impatience

springs from

memories

along clearly

recognizable

lines of a

dark past

lifted off

into the air

leaving

behind

disturbances

under

the wide

starry sky

requiring

selective

historical

amnesia

from

the

charr

ed

re

mains

of

mo

ther

land

©robertolavidez2013

the poet

seeks poetry

by Roberto Lavidez

the poet seeks poetry

in the incalculable

experience of

concealed truth

he penetrates into the

impenetrable shadow

the unexplored resources

of the unpoetical

animated by curiosity

the poet seeks poetry

in the many kinds

of truth

preoccupied in

investigating

the core of the matter

absorbed in the

circularizing

influence

of the vortex

the poet seeks poetry

and sees not with

the eye of logic

but  through

the mystic’s eye

wading through

muddy rivers

under muddy skies

he gets kicked off

from the mountain

and into the great

pile of manure

basking in nostalgia

for the unattainable

the poet seeks poetry

in the light tearing

at the candle’s wick

consequence of

self-reflection or in

an old continent

tearing out

its own entrails

or the lion

embracing the lamb

when he eats him

the poet seeks poetry

in the process of

memorializing the

vanishing race

or the sentimental

dream of incoming

multitudes

the poet seeks poetry

in the inevitable shifts

and twists of language

in the anatomy

of thought

in emotional inhibition

or vociferously

expressed anxiety

in man’s own capacity

for inhumanity

in making his belief

an open question

the poet

seeks poetry

in constant change

in being alive

in himself being

repressed

being excluded

being annihilated

the poet seeks

©robertolavidez2013

ends and means

by Roberto Lavidez

man is an end

in himself

says Kant

not a means

to anything

not himself

what should be done

and how should

life be lived

man can understand

for himself

for he is endowed

with reason

but can man see

the other as equal

that what is true

of the native

is also true

of the civilized

peace

harmony

justice

democracy

can it be arranged

without the mutual

respect for the common

rational humanity in all men

what should be done

and how should life

be lived

when man sees

the other

as means to no end

other than himself

©robertolavidez2013

train of unthought

by Roberto Lavidez

no jobs around

no land to farm

only children

dying of hunger

their blood

used as fertilizer

growing hatred

to harvest wildfire

of dissent

to be snuffed out by

landowning oligarchy

who remains seated

on a hammock

smoking cigar and

looking at infinite sky

mincing gestures and

extravagant poses

always prepared

to mortgage country’s

sovereignty and future

the brutal exploitation

of the weak

raising more

mercenaries in shiny boots

than children with shoes

whose fathers labeled as

enemies of the estate

hounded like wounded

animals

fighting for their lives

bogged down by a persistent

nameless anxiety

the whole history

of the globalized world

is written by the vicious

inner circle of conspirators

who crawl out of bed

agonizing about

what is to be done

with their riches

or how life is to be lived

in their haciendas

after all the tangled

strands of unrest

over the little piece

of land which is life

and death for peasants

uprooted with their

questioning machetes

they sit on railroad tracks

grunting about

approaching train

which carries loads of grain

passing by every station

around the country

without ever arriving

at answers

©robertolavidez2013

centrifugal

tendencies

by Roberto Lavidez

filthy habits

of servility

have been

ingrained

by centuries

of oppression

and abject poverty

systems of life

in the gutter

are fundamentally

irreconcilable

corpses who adopted

an anti-establishment

posture are abandoned

in smokey mountain

of industrial garbage

have always been

present since orgy

of book burning

through long ages

of darkness

with no coherent

framework to

organize thoughts

against vulgar

displays of immense

reinforcement

of segregation

the haranguere 

of crowds

subject to

irrational shifts

in opinion

confronted

with profound

challenges

stumbles into

the daylight

of history

from a long

troubled sleep

the system faces

severe internal

stresses and strains

draining sewers

of sneakers

for the affluent

auctioned for

a limited slice

of the spectrum

ostracizing class

at the behest

of consummate

warriors staging

coups hired by

discredited

moguls as

obsolete as the

cowboy in boots

made from

exotic skins

©robertolavidez2013