Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal

ROSES AND BLOOD

I walk in the rain,
clip wet red roses
from the neighbor’s bush.
They are not home and
I have company
and an empty vase.

The gray mud has my
footprints by the rose
bush. Love could not wait.
The company I
have at home would not
reject such roses.

I offer the roses
and my blood, pricked by
the thorns from the bush,
to my guest, my sweet
imaginary
friend, my company.

BOOK OF EXCUSES

We had nearly every tool
at our disposal,
hammer, nail, screw,
electronic gizmos,
measuring tapes, and glue sticks.

However, it never failed.
When an emergency came up
during an installation,
we were missing the one
tool we needed.

It was back at the factory
or forgotten at our last job.
It was a good thing we had
a book of excuses.
One time it was my turn

as my brother told
the customer we had to
take a break because
my diabetes was acting up
and we’d be back in an hour.

Born in Mexico, Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal lives in California and works in the mental health field in Los Angeles. He is the author of Raw Materials (Pygmy Forest Press), Peering into the Sun (Poet’s Democracy), and Make the Water Laugh (Rogue Wolf Press). His poems have appeared in Beach Chair Press, Blue Collar Review, Kendra Steiner Editions, Mad Swirl, Unlikely Stories, and Zygote in My Coffee.