still there

long gone are the days
my black back pack torn on the left side
my pencils and pens leaking poking into me and each other
between the barely cracked calculus and English literature text books
hid my shame
granules and grams of daze
smoke screen of reality
that monument to beyond desperation
magic and inaudible inside the halls
carpets the only witnesses
to the end of that road
paved with bad intentions all the way
men and women have become a mush
in the gut of torn illusion
bile dripping from its fangs
a smell of the bottom line of nothingness
lingers in my eyes as tears collect like astonished ladies
my right Doc lost somewhere on the 8th floor
my spirit mortgaged to the deceiver
who at the end of the spectacle
is not the one to blame
there are no rhymes roses stars or razor blades
just a fleshbone ghost out of place

tired

mbrazfield (c) 2024

im tired of speaking into empty eyes
vacant hearts longing thighs
im exhausted bogged down in wasted time
hoping the music box lies from your crooked mouth would be divine intervention
im sorry for being
absolutely in horror of understood you
for this makes me an accomplice to your betrayal of who i was
not only was the writing on the walls the smoke signals in the sky
but the very Gabriel yelled into my sighs of despair giving me warning
tonight im tired more than i will ever be
the angels are chasing me
something is afoot
they leave me spray painted prophecy

woman i love you

mbrazfield (c) 2024

i see you in the car
on my feet
the bus
city streets
poetry in your
wrinkled hands
forehead and jowls
the news of your town
your home and world
raw through your glare
i love you deeply
from afar like you
definitely more
sometimes
your hair the roots
and crown of
the frame of you
patient like the Ruth
wisdom in your step
woman don’t look at me
untethered daughter
i reach for the hem
of your overwhelmingly
heavy garment
i worship you a cruel goddess
only because you love deeply
and lose infinitely
your cracked toe nails
calloused to defeat
finger nails ready for the meet
we have always been running
you have always been creating
woman i love you from afar

porra, papai

mbrazfield (c) 2024

some days were sad gray uneventful
most days were brutal confusing painful
rarely did we need or want to smile
the looks the words the anger the hate the ridicule the shame the blame the abandonment
marching on in my head time middle fingered me on my knees crawling on the tarmac of the road to hell paved with no intention
Mutter turned her head like a queen in agreement
i could not comprehend
where do i make sense
papai misguided man
leading dragging his daughter
slaughter wood chipper of life
but i’m grown now
your dice followed you to where you went
my words hushed heaven will never live here anymore Gehenna had bought the country
healing compassion empathy sympathy turning of the cheeks fasting sacrificing keeping score patronizing scarification complete spirit annihilation
i was never meant to be your Issac

another time

mbrazfield (c) 2024

flag display in the El Pavo Real DTLA jewelry gallery on Broadway these beauties have hung there since my kidhood seeing them there so dignified brought back so many wonderful and tragic memories Bruce Lee movies arcades colorful candied almonds parents embroiled in DV fear panic and coloring books fat crayons my pigtails and witnessing fatal drunk fights the stars in the sky an upward continuum of the light bulbs on the marquees and the ever hypnotic Million Dollar Theater and the frightening giant Victor’s Clothing blue groom and so forth and so on Los Angeles here I am your daughter….