James Cervantes



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Slow Drain of Time


It's the third time she has found him
wedged between the wall and bed,
though in the daily lack of clarity
she'd found him only once. You nod
about last Monday, which has slipped back
two weeks now, nod at how clammy
his skin felt to her, and you know
he'll not be able to walk, and will be heavy
when she tries to pick him up again.
The recitation is good, however,
as he gets well each time, and you wonder
how many times this wheel will turn
until the days let go and the new one,
this day, is like the wind you feel
while you look at nothing at all.



Fear via Place


South by southeast, I suppose, where thickets grow
and tangles weave green until it's black.

Places blind with growth blinding me, where I walk
right through a face in the day's brightest hour,

where I miss by a mile the hand that grabs a tree.
And if there could be shadow, that hand would cover mine

before it let go. But south by southwest would do,
where thin leaves grow, or even in the lava caves

where the mineral drip adds little to itself
and you would not know the person next to you

unless you talked real close, recognized the breath
and knew the sun was burning everything outside


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