Juan Perez is our February Selected Poet
You can email Juan at: gotobulldog87@yahoo.com
THE ALL-SEEING EYE OF THE TRICKSTER
No one saw
No, no one saw
The goat pleading for its life
As he bleated how it had gone so wrong
As he bled his accusations unto an empty, plowed field
No one saw
No, no one saw
The fierce, red eyes eyeing the chickens nearby
As the farmer had quickly ran out of goats
As the frame had quickly shifted from a rouge coyote
No one saw
No, no one saw
The chupacabra waiting his hunger out into the dark hours
As his belly cried angrily in deep unsatisfaction
As he cursed his god for always placing him in these predicaments
No one saw
No, no one saw
As the lighting and thunder laughed at life loudly like a trickster god
As the farmer smiled through the end of a night-vision rifle scope
As the eternal myth was about to become an abrupt reality
No one saw
No, no one saw… it coming
SECRETS FROM THE BATCAVE
Attempting to hide that dark of me
Under this castle all can see
Hero, for those that justice seek
Villain, the rest who all is bleak
If truth be told, you’d understand
That justice needs its evil hand
That death and dying should ensue
What then your laws upon review
How then did they confess the deed
Without misdeed returned indeed
The secret shared, now look away
So coy the victory that rules the day
As evil doers endure their rite
In acts that hide the truth from site
Favors the plan remain in play
For truth, justice, the American way
IT'S NOT THAT GREAT A PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN
Are you sitting in some obscure pumpkin patch
Waiting for your mystery’s resolution
Questioning reality on a given dark night
For so long the years, so short the thinning hair
Your colorful hi-lighter shirt erasing the atrocity
Of such a terrible, horrible proposition
Waiting on Mr. So-So Wrong for so, so long
In this dark-vined field with no good dreams to give
Give it up, give it up before it swallows you whole
Before creepy, orange gourds strike up a conversation
Before your tortured soul becomes a Halloween past
As the real Great Pumpkin comes to take your life
Juan Manuel Perez, a Mexican-American poet, is the author of WUI: Written Under The Influence Of Trinidad Sanchez, Jr. (2011), 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).
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. In the fall 2010, 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), the 33rd Annual Armadillo Con (2011), the Texas Association Of Creative Writing Teachers Conference (2011), all in Austin and late this summer at the Langdon Review Of The Arts In Texas Weekend in Granbury, Texas (2011) alongside the state’s finest, the Poet Laureates of Texas, as well as out of state last year 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.
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.
The photo above is Juan Perez with Denise Chavez, a master Chicana writer from New Mexico and Juan's instructor at the TAOS Writers Conference this past summer.