Truck

5 Photos by Silvia Scheibli

                                                         Day of the Dead #2

                                                                   Ristras

                                                        Day of the Dead #3

                                                                  Cardinals

                                                        Broad-billed Hummer

6 Poems by Silvia Scheibli

En El Dia de los Muertos -

            Nogales, Sonora.

Death

Sat on a chair

At Pancho Villa’s Bar,

Sipping

            Cappucino kisses.

Guests nodded

In her direction, as

Passers-by quickened

Their steps.

En el Dia de los Muertos

In a low-cut gown

Death

Was content

            At Pancho’s.

In the time of the Jaguar

                           and the Sky Island Alliance.

There was no border fence yet.

Macho B, as he was called,

Never knew his scientific name.

  

His thick, twitching tail

   wrapped

 blue-shaped darkness

across his muscular shoulders.

He knew the invisible, good-night bird

          roosting in jade brush

by luminous golden eyes

                                like his own.

He watched jagged fruit bats

            slide out of the moon's silver sleeves

    flutter to chrome-sapphire blossoms.

There was no border fence yet.

      So he crossed the busy frontier

                   along the Santa Cruz River

          through a sunflower tunnel.

Macho B

walked right into the homes

of locals via the evening news.

Environment protection members

trapped and euthanized the only jaguar

left in the wild.

                       They apologized

many months later after a thoroughly

meaningless investigation.

Now the border fence is complete.

Breakfast at Eleven –

                        (For Cesar)

Two blonde, white-tailed deer

            in mesquite shadow

            very still

            sun-spotted backs

            long tongues reaching for

            new mesquite beans,

Inspire

            to kiss fresh raspberries

Oats & honey

            on your chest.

Stands on a Chair

The full moon stands on a chair

Wearing my shoes.

Standing on a chair

With my metallic shoes, the moon

Points at night hawks.

I want your green mask.

I want to lie with you

On the earth with no shadow.

Ay –

Give me your green mask

     And white blood.

I’ll never ask for anything

                                   again.

Japanese Tea Ceremony –

                        Golden Gate Park

                        (Elegy for June Morrall)

The traditional tea ceremony

                        embodies the essence of bamboo.

Vital essence

            for the one drinking not only the jasmine tea,

But also

            the floor, walls and lanterns.

The drinkers pour simplicity   into a tiny cup

                        and are transformed

By a

Swallow’s flight    at their fingertips.

Those who usually reach out       suddenly

Reach in                          

                      with the singular gesture

Of a night heron  on lips.

Border

(We did not cross the border,

The border crossed us.)

                        ---Dolores Huerta

I gaze river-like

Looking for a river

or even some tree ducks

But there is only this endless

Late afternoon freight train,

            rumbling through the intersection.

Brakes squealing.

Rolling to a stop.

On my left Mesquite bushes

            crouch

            float up the clearing

            and melt

In between cracks of boxcars.

Moving again,

Dim amber lights flicker

& jolt

On the track.

River-like

I scan the empty road.

Silvia Scheibli’s poems were translated into Spanish for the anthology, La Adelfa Amarga, edited by Miguel Angel Zapata and published in Lima, Peru. Other anthologies include:  Internal Weather: New Poems, New Poets, edited by Fred Wolven; Mantras, an Anthology of Immanentist poetry edited by Alan Britt; New Generation:  Poetry, edited by Fred Wolven; The Immanentist Anthology: Art of the Superconscious, published by The Smith. Her poems have appeared in magazines such as, Black Moon: Poetry of Imagination, The Midwest Quarterly, The Raw Seed Review and Ann Arbor Review. She is one of many talented poets participating in the We Are You Project International (www.weareyouproject.org). Her latest book is Parabola Dreams: Poems by Silvia Scheibli and Alan Britt (www.bitteroleander.com).