Mireya Perez Bustillo

Looking East

by

by Mireya Perez Bustillo

                                                                        Inch, Ireland

 

 

                                                            Eye   extended

                                                            pale   green   edges   of   sea   and   hill

                                                            where a giant’s fingers formed

                                                                        grassy mounds

                                                            whoosh of water

                                                            a   bee   slices   air

                                                            moos,   baas,   a dog’s tail wags

                                                            breeze   rustles   rushes,   fuschia,

                                                                        my hair

                                                            a white truck rounds the bend

                                                            to Playa Blanca   palms, palenqueras

                                                               fried fish

                                                            the bay of Cartagena to the left

                                                            where English pirates lurked

                                                            never   reaching

                                                            casa,   familia

 

Mireya Perez-Bustillo writes poetry and fiction in Spanish and English. Her poetry appears in MOM’s EGG; Caribbean Review; Americas Review; Dinner with the Muse, IRP/LP2 Voices, among others. Her novel, Back to El Dorado (Floricanto Press, 2020), a Latina coming-of-age story, is available on Barnes and Noble and Amazon sites.

 

 

 

 

Market Day

by

by Mireya Perez Bustillo

…………For María Moreno Pérez and
…………Antonio Pérez Rincón

He arced his tongue to reach the fly
the only part he could move burrowed
in the camouflage of sand in the bed of the arroyo
soiling his tended grey softness embedding nettles.
In the hacienda Holanda by the river Tunjuelo
doña María ordered the baskets to be packed for market.
Pedro, the mayordomo, was sent to saddle the donkey.
In the bed by the creek he rolled in the scrub and played dead.
On the bridge by the river, don Antonio, impatiently
paced on his stallion, Cerezo.
Doña María in her riding skirt
held back her nervous mare, la Geisha
even the children were sent to search.
Running after the overseer, Pedrito, Carlitos,
Martita, Conchita, Pilarica and baby Tina
trampled lettuces and cabbages and played
“rabbit” biting off carrot heads. .
In the confusion baby Tina climbed
In the laundry basket falling asleep among
the camphored sheets and was not missed
‘til doña María said they’d have to take
the wagon and where was that bendito
animal and it was always the same story
every Thursday day of market.
Hearing the thump of the wheels
the donkey stretched shaking twigs
calling to him the great mastiff, Orlando,
who was in charge of misleading the search.

Mireya Perez-Bustillo writes poetry and fiction in Spanish and English. Her poetry appears in MOM’s EGG; Caribbean Review; Americas Review; Dinner with the Muse, IRP/LP2 Voices, among others. Her novel, Back to El Dorado (Floricanto Press, 2020), a Latina coming-of-age story, is available on Barnes and Noble and Amazon sites.

The Coney Island Aquarium

by

by Mireya Perez Bustillo

                        To: Paloma

It stood there guarding
…..that corner so close
…..to its boardwalk home
But the darkness kept me away
Maybe I peeked in once
But the dark waters
…..Pushed me out
I heard beauties swam there
But the waters made the darkness
…..fill me
But today when la familia said
they were going there
and the little one feeling
…..my fear
Said she’d hold my hand
I knew I would enter the waters

Mireya Perez-Bustillo writes poetry and fiction in Spanish and English. Her poetry appears in MOM’s EGG; Caribbean Review; Americas Review; Dinner with the Muse, IRP/LP2 Voices, among others. Her novel, Back to El Dorado (Floricanto Press, 2020), a Latina coming-of-age story, is available on Barnes and Noble and Amazon sites.

 

Reclaimed

by

by Mireya Perez Bustillo

Under the portals where scribes personalized
model letters to hearts and dutiful ones to mothers
near the entrance of the fortress within thickness of walled city
when presidents were poets el Bodegón gathered
el tuerto Luis, el cojo Manuel and abuelo to flail
in rhyming matches at Castilian sentimentality
writing odes to old shoes, sending shirts to la República
joining Neruda to cry at shelled Madrid.
Downing dark tintos dampness staining white linen,
smudging cuffs and manuscripts, wiring nerves, bulging eyes,
feverish, he wrote sleeplessness forfeiting judgeship,
piling curling onionskins in rented room in Plaza de los Coches
leaving abuela, niños, casa in the foothill of the monastery
Where some liberated Kongos once worshipped a golden she goat.
To take the cure, no one ever talked about, he left her
alone except for the hands that could turn string to lace
and patio fruit to cocadas and tamarind balls
turning garage to a tienda, abuela stopped tongues
showing a señora could work.
Sixty years later in this square near the arch
I know she would delight in a cherry cheesecake
attentive to the display and the conduct of the business,
while abuelo blooming from the rest
would nurse a cappuccino as he constructed
an ode to a recycling bin.

Mireya Perez-Bustillo writes poetry and fiction in Spanish and English. Her poetry appears in MOM’s EGG; Caribbean Review; Americas Review; Dinner with the Muse, IRP Voices, among others. Her novel, Back to El Dorado (Floricanto Press, 2020), a Latina coming-of-age story, is available on Barnes and Noble and Amazon sites.

Cordillera Oriental

by

by Mireya Perez Bustillo

 

Verdigris      lianas       spruce

 

moss       olive      emerald

 

lime      pine    grass    clovers    palms

 

helechos       peacock       mint

 

parrot     lettuce    cabbage    capers

xxxxxxnot

vermillion    ochre    terracotta    sienna

xxxxmy   xxxAndes

 

Mireya Perez-Bustillo writes poetry and fiction in Spanish and English. Her poetry appears in MOM’s EGG; Caribbean Review; Americas Review; Dinner with the Muse, IRP Voices, among others. Her novel, Back to El Dorado (Floricanto Press,2020), a Latina coming-of-age story, is available on Barnes and Noble and Amazon sites.

Bed

by

by Mireya Perez Bustillo

A woman filled with the gladness of living
Places clean fragrant sheets
Lavender sacheted
On the bed
Which hold the orange blossoms of her wedding
The rose petals he places there
After she returns
Covered with jasmine oil
Ready to please him
Putting there softness caresses
Sighs of pleasure
Next to the timelessness
Of her beauty

Mireya Perez-Bustillo writes poetry and fiction in Spanish and English. Her poetry appears in MOM’s EGG; Caribbean Review; Americas Review; Dinner with the Muse, IRP Voices, among others. Her novel, Back to El Dorado (Floricanto Press,2020), a Latina coming-of-age story, is available on Barnes and Noble and Amazon sites.

A Cow Jumped Over the Moon

by

by Mireya Perez Bustillo

To see what she could see
To know her name beyond the number
xxxxxdangling from her ears
Rumors she’d heard of cows resting in Swiss pastures
xxxxxand others nearer feasting in grassy fields
xxxxxwith mountain views at “The Farm of Happy Cows”
There was talk of Tartine, a brown and white Holstein
xxxxxwho relished in her daily head rubs
xxxxxand her sister heifers mooing at massages
xxxxxfrom large round hanging brushes
xxxxxwhile they marveled at their clean hooves,
xxxxxthe fresh straw, the milking twice a day
Some say she was moved by a yearning for a cowbell
xxxxxor that she longed for Govinda, the divine cowherd
Others heard her wish for the eternal return
xxxxxto her original Maasi herd
xxxxxor maybe it was the stench of the chopping block
We only know that on Wednesday
xxxxxshe hoofed it out of the Musa Halal Slaughterhouse
xxxxxhooves darting down 109th Avenue
xxxxxdodging cars, cops, butchers
xxxxxcutting through the Drake’s driveway
xxxxxbusting the Farley’s fence
xxxxxcornered, lassoed, tranquilized
xxxxxshe learned the rumors were true
xxxxxNow she eats, sleeps, ruminates all day
xxxxxat ease from horns to tail
xxxxxdeep in the countryside
xxxxxfull in her cowness
xxxxxshe moos at the whiff of lilacs

Mireya Perez-Bustillo writes poetry and fiction in Spanish and English. Her poetry appears in MOM’s EGG; Caribbean Review; Americas Review; Dinner with the Muse, IRP Voices, among others. Her novel, Back to El Dorado (Floricanto Press, 2020), a Latina coming-of-age story, is available on Barnes and Noble and Amazon sites.

Chapelle du Rosaire, Vence

by

To Henri Matisse

by Mireya Perez Bustillo

Where a clarity favors
royal palms over wedding cake buildings
he meditated on light

Here he wanted to draw the light
of the sea, the space, the mimosa
with bits of glass he colored
ripples to dance on white marble
a water moving to the sun
not knowing he could make a solid liquid
wanting only the light

Mireya Perez-Bustillo writes poetry and fiction in Spanish and English. Her poetry appears in MOM’s EGG; Caribbean Review; Americas Review; Dinner with the Muse, IRP Voices, among others. Her novel, Back to El Dorado (Floricanto Press,2020), a Latina coming-of-age story, is available on Barnes and Noble and Amazon sites.

This Hand

by

by Mireya Perez Bustillo

In 1588 the Dutch sculptor
Henrick Goltzius drew his right hand
Strong gnarled
With knobbed knuckles
And strong wrist
With the white cuff rolled up
The veins bulging
Today I see my right hand
Delicate weakened
My wrists a narrow cuff
My thumb
Not its normal self
As it knows
It needs to rest
A while
And
Write another way
A week before its surgery

Bubbling

by

by Mireya Perez Bustillo

Like a beetle under a frog’s skin
the paint bubbled larger with the heat
almost ready to burst like when she
held “number one” under her belly was hard like
……………………………………………..a balloon.

Sarita liked to look at the bubble
When Miss Jones started with the questions:
……….What happened to the old woman
……….who lived in a shoe?
……….Why did the cow jump
……….over the moon?
……….What did Jack eat as he
……….sat in his corner?

In the bubble puff Sarita could see
“Rin Rin Renacuajo” “Mirringa Mirronga” and “Pastorcita”*
………And Miss Jones doesn’t even
………know why “Rin Rin” left all
………dressed up and so early, or
………why  “Pastorcita” lost all her sheep
………“Rin Rin” is the best and papi
………taught me it and I know
………it all and say it for the guests.

“Sarita, Sarita, there you go again… “
………And I bet Miss Jones doesn’t
………know you say at the end
………“Colorin, Colorado, este cuento
………se ha acabado” ** And
………She doesn’t even know about the bubbling.

*Characters in nursery stories by Colombian writer, Rafael Pombo
** Traditional way of ending fairy tales and nursery rhymes in Spanish