Poetry
Morir Soñando
An Elegy for Heriberta Batista
Berta
Murio soñando...
Night your cloak
Descanse
Berta
Choose your home: Amongst the stars
Coral of El Rio Aguila
Faraway islands forgotten by conquest
Where ancestors hold un lugar
At la cosmic mesa for you
Heriberta Batista Ramirez Acosta
Your name stays on my childhood lips
And I sing your hymns:
One part jugo naranja
One part leche
A spoonful of azuca blanca
Served over ice in a tall crystal glass;
Un Morir soñando resurrectes my childhood bliss
Berta would make me
Desayunos
Tres golpes of island-born love:
Salchicha, queso frito, mangú, huevo frito
y Morir Soñando to wash it all down
Later I discovered that
These Desayunos were postcards
Postmarked with desire
Landing me in the land of our elders; I know you now
As more than just a spring break destination.
Berta left
In her cloak of midnight hidden messages:
La vida no es facil, mijo
The philosophy of longevity
Tu eres un muchachito muy inteligente
A love supreme
Trujillo se me pego a la falda, y aca
Traje su demonios
Post Traumatic Dictatorship Syndrome
Dios perdona a todo
A god that eases reality
Eta ciudad me jode los huesos
Surviving city winters
No te olvida de donde tu eres
Dropping seeds of roots remembrance
Ay, mijo. Que nunca te pase a ti; Tu papa…
Es buen hombre, tampoco facil
Two sons buried before burying her
And one who corrected the imbalance
Berta
Soñaste a good way to die
Your cloak of night-
mare galloped
Old-timers/springing your soul
into dream’s country/to dance/to draw/to sing
I been meaning to ask you: Why did you wait so long?
To which you answer in a language I have no reference for...yet
But I do feel my heart beating in your soul’s hands, Berta
© Armando Batista, 2019 All Rights Reserved
Armando Batista is a trickster spirit in human form, hailing from Washington Heights, NYC. He is the child of immigrants, making him American. A trained actor and performing artist, Armando has worked on stage, screen, and in multiple venues and spaces, transforming the everyday into a magical moment for curiosity and imagination. He is currently earning his Masters in Writing from Vermont College Fine Arts, and currently down the rabbit hole of a poetry book project which he envisions as a “gaming experience in poetics and wordplay” for the reader; think CYOA meets visual poetry and hybrid text at an underground house party… He currently resides in the DMV area.
