February , 2013

FEATURED POET: Rachelle Linda Escamilla is the winner of multiple poetry awards including: The Academy of American Poets, The Dorritt Sibley Poetry Prize, and The James Phelan Literary Awards. She has an MFA in Poetry from The University of Pittsburgh and is a founding member of The Poets and Writers Coalition of SJSU. Her poetry can be found at Cave Moon Press, Hinchas de Poesia, A Joint Called Pauline, La Bloga, Occupoetry, The Villiage Pariah, 580 Split, 99poemsforthe99percent, Two Thirds North: An International Anthology, and Shadowed, Unheard Voices an Anthology of Women. She lives Guangzhou, China where she is faculty for the Creative Writing program in the School of Foreign Languages at Sun Yat-sen University.

CALIFORNIA HWY

Driving the 101, her brother stations his chin just

above the locked, quarter high window. Flustered

with his height, the thin of his neck crinkles pushing

his face into a scowl as they round the bend.

The sideways of San Jose blur against his inky

eyes his mud skin. She pulls away from the speedway

behind a train of cars, a pool of police and people.

Here, slammed not two feet from the tires of traffic

heads, dark hair melting into the asphalt curls

sizzled straight on this July day. Her brother’s hands

ball. They pass the primered Hondas, the dust colored

Toyotas. They pass the moms and sons, all brown

faces seeding the asphalt. Arms zip-tied behind backs,

her brother’s fingers number the bodies, practicing

arithmetic.

PEOPLE OCEAN

How do you write People Ocean my students ask

what is the word in English?  I say I have no clue.

Babylon takes the stage and says its when the world

around you moves in waves and the bodies beside

you sway and you are part of it too.

I was in a gulf of people at the Macau Immigration station.

In the Foreigner Queue there were multi colored faces,

hair and dress an equally distributed rainbow

like a PBS afternoon special,

but over the cement precipice

a mass of black hair and sand colored faces

lurch as the officers steady the gates

at the swell of uniform hair

and women tottering on coral feet. 

Lotus Dream by Christina Michaels Tremblay

WRITE YOUR POEM

Delayed on the Szechuan Road
                        Chang Yueh

A traveler races the sun and moon
coming and going according to plan
but autumn wind doesn't wait
it reaches Loyang before me

So as you race the moon in our global village what autumn winds do you chase?  It is easy to scurry and forget that the scraps of paper you use for your poems hold import.  They hold value to those most important.  Don't forget to write.