Juan Perez
The September Editor's Pick Poet is Juan Perez
Please feel free to email Juan at: gotobulldog87@yahoo.com
SUPPLIES
Remember, just two weeks ago today
About all that muddle for some supplies
Ones you ordered early Monday morning
Ones you were supposed to receive Tuesday
They didn’t come, but you waited a day
They still didn’t come, so you called to ask
Ordered them again then waited once more
Thursday. They never came. Friday. The same
You called again, got usual runaround
They said you would have them by next Monday
Remember how angry you were those days
You tried to contain yourself, but you failed
How distant that seems now as you wrestle
those same supplies from a postal zombie
RIVERDALE: A ZOMBIE ZONNET
For the comic book series: Afterlife With Archie
Oh, Riverdale, sweet bygone Riverdale
Just to show you that it can happen here
To all the good people in this city
Like Archie, Betty, and Veronica
Even Jughead’s canine is not immune
Cases of walking death in great places
Staining what was once wholesome, green, and good
What “it” was, they can’t define for certain
Those outside the zombie box (for now) can
Person by person, house by house by house,
City by city, (panel by panel)
What tragic poems they will write about you
If there’s anyone alive to write them
Oh, Riverdale, sweet bygone Riverdale
ELVIRA SONNET NO. 16
She is just the girl next door
Why all the fuss about what she looks like
Why all the talk about what she wears
Why all the gossip about what she does
She is just the girl next door
A little less inclined with daylight, tempered weather
A little less inclined to fictional, fat morality
A little less inclined to fancy, schmancy words
She is just the girl next door
A little more inclined to moon-light tanning
A little more inclined to sordid, shady subjects
A little more inclined to date both your brother and your father
She is just the girl next door
With perhaps just a little bit or a lot more
Juan Manuel Pérez, a Mexican-American poet of indigenous descent and the current Poet Laureate for Corpus Christi, Texas (2019-2020), is the author of Another Menudo Sunday (2007), O’ Dark Heaven: A Response to Suzette Haden Elgin’s Definition of Horror (2009), WUI: Written Under the Influence of Trinidad Sanchez, Jr. (2011), Live From La Pryor: The Poetry of Juan Manuel Perez: A Zavala Country Native Son, Volume 1 (2014), and Sex, Lies, and Chupacabras (2015), as well as, the co-editor of The Call Of The Chupacabra (2018).
He is the 2011-2012 San Antonio Poets Association Poet Laureate and the Lone Star State’s only El Chupacabras Poet Laureate (For Life). The former Gourd Dancer for the Memphis Tia Piah Big River Clan Warrior Society is also a Pushcart Prize Nominee as well as a SEATTAH Scholar (Striving For Excellence And Accountability In The Teaching Of Traditional American History) through the University Of Dallas.
Juan is a ten-year Navy Corpsman/Combat Marine Medic with experience in the 1991 Persian Gulf War with the 2nd Marines and the 1992 Hurricane Andrew Relief Marine Air Group Task Force. This two-time Teacher of the Year, along with his wife, Malia (a three-time Teacher of the Year), is a co-founder of The House of the Fighting Chupacabras Press.
Currently, Juan worships his Creator, teaches public high school history, writes poetry, and chases chupacabras in the Texas Coastal Bend Area.