Edwin Torres

WHAT IS IT YOU THOUGHT

everything reverses itself 
aware of itself
in that way it is most alive 
in reversal

  two ways 
no and way
I was aware 
because everything was aware 

  the unabled ocean
that disappears by being
become softer 
by asking 

 what are you scared of
your fear start there 
and go to someone
who needs it

MEDINA SWIRL

the man without front teeth
has teeth on the side          that have pushed forward over time
and now occupy          the front teeth void
left by former buck tooth glory

his jacket of sky blue and
two missing buttons          fill majestic air circles
with electric tabla rasulas          that woo buck tooth boys
into bragging rites

invoking sellers to sell for buyers to buy
while workers work          musics muse and artists art
kings king while letting          the populace pop lower ranks
rank

emperors empower the animals
to animize          givers give and takers take
days day and doldrums drum          screamers scream
as the ghettoes get owed

while divas dive and
up & rising newcomers          rise up & come
politicians politic          while hippies hip 
diggers dig the jazzers’ jazz

imaginations maginate as rain rains
around the fallen fallen          walls wall around
families famined          finders find what losers lose
rhythms arrythmmed by humblers hummed

smokers smoke
as man continues to man          and far in the farring claps
the call and response monkey          continues to monk
among the keys

Edwin Torres' books of poetry include, XoeteoX: the infinite word object (Wave Books), Ameriscopia (University of Arizona Press), The PoPedology of an Ambient Language (Atelos Books) and The Animal's Perception of Earth (forthcoming from Doublecross Press). He is editor of the inter-genre anthology, The Body In Language: An Anthology (Counterpath Press). He has performed his multi-disciplinary bodylingo poetics worldwide, and received fellowships from NYFA, The Foundation for Contemporary Art, and The DIA Arts Foundation, among others. Anthologies include, Fractured Ecologies, Who Will Speak For America, American Poets In The 21st Century: Poetics Of Social Engagement, Angels of The Americlypse: New Latin@ Writing, Postmodern American Poetry Vol. 2, Kindergarde: Avant Garde Poems For Children, and Aloud: Voices From The Nuyorican Poets Café. Edwin was one of the original poets from The Stoop in the 90's, who met at Tribes with Steve Cannon and Bob Holman before those Friday night slams to figure out how performed poems worked on the page, Tribes will always be in his poetic DNA.