The September Featured Poet is
Juan Perez
Please feel free to email Juan at:
gotobulldog87@yahoo.com
ASTRO-PITHEKUS
Teach your story so that
You won’t be forgotten
The earth looked small
From the porthole window
So began the movement
Into the stars without man
Our captors, teachers
Our ancient, ancestor man
Funny, how he’d thought
We’d enslave him
Fact was, he was just dying off
His god was finally done with him
Human history
A legend, myth. A fairy tale
THE POLKA DOT DRESS
Daily shaven smooth long legs
Under a clean red polka dot dress
Red purse to match, dark shades to hide
Sunday morning summer hat on
Painted lips, deep sweet apple red
Avon calling buzzed the doorbell
Lady of the house beckons in
Four more sitting stand and greet
Open purse unveils unexpected surprise
Shining steel quickly dancing in air
Five on the floor groaning and moaning
The polka dot dress walking quietly away
Powder room pit-stop for a standup call
Five o’clock shadow check smiling away
HAIKU NO. 25
a lonely spaceship
where white fangs shine in the dark
deep in outer space
SAVE THE CHUPACABRAS!
They say that I don’t exist
That I am Latin-American mythology
That I am a Cuban conundrum
That I am a Puerto Rican perplexity
That I am a Mexican mystery
Even worse, they think that I am an American, urban legend
Yet, do I not prove to all of you that you are wrong
By writing these very words?
That the skeptics are full of goat-shit?
That can’t be the only truth!
Yet, I turn to “they” and ask,
“Who are you so conspicuous and faceless?
“They” who come up with ways
To suppress and complicate our very existence
“They” who still spread the gossip
That allows fellow goat suckers to be slaughtered
Day in and day out
There is no end in sight for those murders
As depicted on human television
There are too many stories
Goat sucker killed in Cuero
Another one killed in Dallas
Another one gutted in San Antonio
Another one found dead in Zavala County.
And for what?
What was the crime?
Hunger?
And how do “they” get away with it
Simple: This was no chupacabra
This was a wolf with mange
This was a coyote with mange
This was a dog with mange
All examined and found to be something else
All of them dead
Cousins, fathers, mothers, children
All of them dead
Dead
Dead
What’s next?
Snow White in heat with mange
I doubt that, but she could use a few more tacos
The Mexican sun, and a new religion
Anyhow, when will this mangy gossip stop?
When will the capricious killings end?
There are a million witnesses reinforcing
That the goat sucker exists and that it is only hungry
That it wants to be saved
Yet, there are so many lies made by believers to the contrary
Haters!
All that was required was nothing more
Than to sacrifice a goat or two
Hunger is the only motivation
Feed the chupacabra
Save the chupacabra
Don’t shoot them
Truth will stop the terror
Truth will stop this open-season on the chupas
Truth will end this persecution
Sensibility will put an end to this senseless slaughter
What does the chupacabra have to do
To earn some respect around this planet?
Hold news conferences and announce that we have rights too?
We were not made for that
That is why we have you
You will have to stop the sheepish “they”
You who make policies and laws on this earth
Must help save the chupacabras!
Once we are gone
Like many other creatures of this earth
We are gone forever, mange or not!
And then what stories will you have left to tell your children?
What tales will you tell your televisions?
What judgment will you face
If your creator turns out to be the Almighty Chupacabra?
Juan Manuel Perez, a Mexican-American poet, is the author of Another Menudo Sunday (2007), the e-book O’ Dark Heaven: A Response To Suzette Haden Elgin’s Definition Of Horror (2009) and six poetry chapbooks, including the horrifically acclaimed Dial H For Horror (2006).
Juan’s new collection of poems, WUI: Written Under The Influence Of Trinidad Sanchez, Jr. was put together in Trino’s honor and was released in February 2011 by Rhyme Or Reason Word Design Studio out of San Antonio, Texas.
He is also a member of the San Antonio Poets’ Association, The Poetry Society Of Texas, The San Angelo Writers’ Club, the Science Fiction Poetry Association, the Horror Writers Association, the Alamo Area Poets Of Texas, the Writers Of The Rio Grande, and the Writers’ League Of Texas, as well as, a student to the great Chicano poet Trinidad Sánchez, Jr.
Juan was recently named the 2011 Poet Laureate for the San Antonio Poets’ Association and had two of his speculative poems nominated for the 2011 Rhysling Poetry Award. Last fall, he was also the guest columnist for the The Official Newsletter Of The Horror Writers Association (Blood & Spades: Poets of the Dark Side; November 2010 / Volume 20, Issue 124) where he presented his written thoughts about his speculative poems.
He has been a featured reader at many poetry venues around the state including the recent World Horror Convention (2011) in Austin and late last summer at the Langdon Review Weekend in Granbury, Texas (2010) alongside the state’s finest, the Poet Laureates of Texas, as well as out of state in Georgia as a Featured Poet at the 4th Annual Albany State University Poetry Festival (2010). He is available for readings in and out of state. Juan writes poetry on a variety of subjects like Mexican-American/Native American life, comic books, science fiction, horror and food.
His work has also appeared in The Mayo Review, Writers Of The Rio Grande.com, The Enigmatist, Horror Writers Association Newsletter, WritingRaw.com, The San Angelo’s Writers Club Newsletter, Homenaje A Miguel Hernandez En Su Centenario, San Antonio’s 350.org, And Now The Nightmare Begins, vacpoetry.com, Desahogate, thehorrorzine.com, Boundless, The People’s Comic Book Newsletter, Voices De La Luna, International Poetry Review, Illumen, Star*Line: the Journal of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, The Poet Magazine, di-verse-city, Voices Along The River, The Dreamcatcher, Inkwell Echoes, The Palm’s Leaf, Message of the Muse and many other local publications.
He has also done some acting and has two independent films under his belt plus he has played a supporting role in several of his student’s films such as Senior Skip Day Massacre (2011), The Secret Life Of A Mexican Teenager (2011) and Paranormal Documentary (2011). His regular films El Chisme (2008) and Donato, King Of The Vampire Drags (2009) were both filmed in San Antonio and produced by Glorybridge Productions. Recently, he was a movie extra for Old Rodeo: The Legend Of Red Lebow (2011) produced by Eugene Smith and Directed by Jody Stelzig. Juan is also a gun-slinging Mexican Indian Rogue, Old West re-enactor with a gunfighter group under the direction of actor and friend, Dean Reading (Temple Grandin (2010) and Walker Texas Ranger (1994)) out of Lockhart with most of the shows occurring in Austin, Texas.
He was also this school year’s (2010-2011) University Scholastic League One Act Play Director for La Pryor High School. The selected play for the season was of course, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” which was portrayed marvelously by his students in competition and for the community.
Juan is a ten-year Navy/Marine veteran and former Combat medic serving in the First Gulf War (1991). Presently, he is a successful public high school history teacher in La Pryor, Texas where he lives.