by Ismael Santallines
The moment I say you are beautiful you begin to fade more and more of you vanishes more of your chafing beauty draws you with it away from the reflective tissue of what we choose to see diaphanous image back to the purity of base elements like a wind that does not move its supinated hand too not-there for passersby to spit on scant skimp measly substantives that do not work to breathe you back extrinsic grammar we delete edit formulate a different way of telling the story until people see right through look up to see someone smiling at you with open arms scoop of love you believe a second is for you but steps forward to hug her friend through you to speak pleasantries through you oh how good it is to see through you mitigated scrub you will completely disappear and never see how alive and there you are you not through you beautiful homeless spirit.
Ismael “Izzy” Santillanes was in the Razor Wire Poetry Workshop for more than twenty-three years before being released from prison. In June he will receive his MFA in creative writing from Antioch University. His first book of poems was Indelicate Angels (Black Rock Press, 2014.)
You can read more about Izzy and his writing process in “The Right Word: How Writing Poetry Saved My Life.”
Facebook: Ismael Santillanes
