So, let me light up
my poem instead—
where do I begin,
rolling a joint, I must
be precise but just like
each thought some
sprinkle away from
each grip, my attention
spans eternal distractions
I can’t hold enough
of you in my hands,
it’s always clouds
dusk memory is a
vapor, why do I feel
like mist, never seen,
always hazy purple
so many colors focusing
on Jimi Hendrix’s guitar
gifts, each Little Wing riff
hit, instead with each grinning
cough, I lie down, my body
glued to the couch like
honey sticky layered
when I feel blunt rolling
cigars with soupçon
of hash, this will make
my mind rises
to the atmosphere
conversations
with my lover, devoted
she lights our room
with revealing torches
scented using our exhales
as words, love her breath
the way she leaves sativa
licks, Indica kisses, hybrid
of desires becomes fire
when she relights me, always
knows how much to fill in
my bowl, she loves the way
I float silently
beside her, she knows when
to reach out, finger ready
to play with my gray
curling hairs tickling
me below, the same
ones she has mesmerized
for all the passing calendar
together the only way know
years have passed us, renewing
our medical prescriptions—
dreading that day when
our pale faces greet the outside
I feel like our eyes overcome
with so much LA light
would rather inhale
our inside flare, anxiety
of facing the traffic smog
idling with windows
open, as I roll another
one glaring at the clouds
already calling me,
in the passenger seat
just another daze
my face leaning outside
massaging the wind
in motion with each rhyme
inhaled, future clouds
calming, I can almost feel
myself becoming smoke.
Thank You Franny Padilla
Adrian Ernesto Cepeda is the author of the full-length poetry collection, Flashes & Verses… Becoming Attractions from Unsolicited Press; the poetry chapbook So Many Flowers, So Little Time from Red Mare Press; and Between the Spine, a collection of erotic love poems published with Picture Show Press. La Belle Ajar, a collection of cento poems inspired by Sylvia Plath’s 1963 novel, has just been published by CLASH Books.
Adrian is an L.A. Poet who has a B.A. from the University of Texas at San Antonio; he is also a graduate of the M.F.A program at Antioch University in Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife and their cat, Woody Gold.
Author photo: Rachael Warecki from CameraRaw Photography
Image: “Something’s Cooking” by Yousef Abdelmagid
Pine Hills Review 