November 12, 2009 by htwilson
para Lupe Ontiveros
Now that she is a vieja
with dyed blonde hair
and not a threat to any gringa’s
beauty when she steps into
the frame of someone else’s fame,
you get to know her nombre, hombre.
Lupe Ontiveros
does not roll off your tongue
and she paints no picture
in your mind because
you never knew she
was acting like a star.
You never went to a matinee
looking for her name
or waiting for Lupe to say,
the only lines she always had,
after knocking on the door
and peeking in, “Excuse me,
senior, do you need room service?”
She was a minority detail
in the mise en scene of
the movies we all went to see.
While the stars of film and life
carried on in the foreground
of our attention, in soft light and
perfect make up, with witty
lines and music for the moment,
Lupe was in the background, like us.
But she had a master key
to Hollywood, a back door entrance
that service people used to bring in
the catered lunches and distilled agua;
and when no one was looking,
she was letting otros enter,
making room for dreamers named
Lopez, Alba, Rodriguez, Dawson,
del Toro, Hayek, Mendes,
y para ti tambien.
Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved
Posted in culture, latino, new, poetry, spanglish, writing | Tagged Hispanic Heritage poetry, Hollywood Poetry, latino poetry, Lupe Ontiveros, poems, poems about teaching, poetry, poetry on pop culture, political poetry | Leave a Comment »
November 1, 2009 by htwilson
these blushing times we share
in small words set out as picnic items
made to taste of cinnamon and sea breeze
parceled into glazed paper
scented with fruit zest
filled with names we barely
know any better than
a recipe for making cheese,
leaves behind an aftertaste,
like crushed almonds and
snowflakes on our tongues.
Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved
Posted in american, culture, new, poetry, writing | Tagged gossip, poem, poems about the self, poetry | 2 Comments »
October 25, 2009 by htwilson

Guest artist, Alexander Raphael Toromoreno’s, “Noah’s banana boat for alphabet animals” … see how many letters and animals you can find. Here’s a hint, there’s a cow and a pig, sinking in the ocean.
Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved
Posted in american, drawing, line art, miscellaneous, new, strange, writing | Tagged children's art, drawing, father and son, line art, line drawing | Leave a Comment »
October 20, 2009 by htwilson
not baby blue,
soft and comforting
as the breadth of sky
that breaks at the horizon …
or a cornflower blue
cotton short sleeved shirt
that fit right around the shoulders
the summer you started getting looks …
but true blue.
melting towards the darkness,
rushing for the edges
of the rainbow
and messing with
the indigos of mourning …
the kind of blue
with heavy names like
Duke, Prussian, Navy
and Midnight that
cover other colors
with their spectrum …
the blue in your bruises,
that fade into jaundiced
patches and the blue
that creeps into dead lips
kissing the world goodbye.
Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved
Posted in american, latino, new, poetry, writing | Tagged blue, dark poetry, depression, life poetry, new poetry, poem, poetry, poetry about alcoholics, poetry about depression, poetry about the self | 2 Comments »
October 11, 2009 by htwilson
I approach a day of raking
like I have arrived at a crime scene,
finding evidence that Persephone’s
white arms were dragged by;
her nails digging into the earth
as she clawed against being pulled
into the early darkness, the shorter days –
she scratched October’s face until he bled
the colors of a parade, and left a cryptic
message in the curled leaves on my lawn.
From the center of the world
she paints this picture of the fires
all around her; a portrait that breaks
in the wind and that I collect into piles.
Looking at the bursting colors
still clinging to the branches is
just a reminder that she’s been taken.
A sick ransom note from her captor,
like a naked picture of her outline
at the beach while
her curves eat half the sun.
Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved
Posted in american, angels, culture, latino, new, poetry, writing | Tagged autumn poetry, Greek mythology, life poetry, persephone, poem, poetry, poetry about the self, religious poetry, work poem, writing | Leave a Comment »
October 6, 2009 by htwilson
While working on a cartoon for this blog about an HIV “vaccine” I felt a little déjà vu — like I had drawn something like this long ago. Digging through some old folders (this is why it’s good to keep journals, diaries and notebooks) I discovered a little cartoon that I had done in high school, and that was actually printed in a 1985 Brooklyn Tech HS newspaper. Here is my new cartoon:

and here is the cartoon I drew in 1985.

I guess some things never change. Like cruel religious dogmas.
Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved
Posted in american, culture, line art, miscellaneous, new, writing | Tagged AIDS vaccine, atheism, atheist cartoon, Brooklyn Tech Survey, Brooklyn Technical High School, culture, culture as conquest, HIV, HIV vaccine, political art, political cartoon, religion in american culture, science education, science news, science vs superstition | 3 Comments »
October 2, 2009 by htwilson
It begins shortly after I serve my two boys
a plate of white cookies and some chocolate milk,
while I’m dipping my burnt whole wheat crackers
(the English call Melba toast and sell to us suckers)
into chick peas I could have squashed myself,
(but purchased as hummus instead)
when the questions appear about opposites,
but quickly become infected with laughter
(in between chewing and kicking each other)
they spill silly pairs of the commonest things
and finally break all the rules of the logic
that makes any sense of the meaning of opposites
(Think of a bar room late in a shift)
when one of them questions that since it’s
okay to say you’re comparing apples
and oranges like they are unlike, then
surely there must be an opposite for ears?
Mouth I say, and tell them to finish their snack.
Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved
Posted in american, new, poetry, writing | Tagged family poetry, father and son, father-son poetry, funny poems, humor, love poetry, poems, poetry, poetry about family | Leave a Comment »
September 26, 2009 by htwilson

Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved.
Posted in american, culture, drawing, line art, miscellaneous, poetry, strange, writing | Tagged cartoon, cultural ideas, culture, humor, memes, sociology, spread of ideas, thinking against the crowd | 2 Comments »
September 23, 2009 by htwilson

I imagine this is what the creation workshop must have looked like.
Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved.
Posted in american, angels, culture, drawing, line art, miscellaneous, new, strange, writing | Tagged angels, atheism, atheist cartoon, christian mythology, DNA, political cartoon, science cartoon, science vs superstition | Leave a Comment »
September 20, 2009 by htwilson
I sleep late with my certainty
on Sunday morning, letting the
day break the spell of darkness
like it always has; subtly at first
and then revealing the full
nature of our spinning.
I have learned to keep
the necessary things that prove
their place in the universe;
that show their accidental
designs in their morbid
architecture – free of ghosts,
or gods breaking laws
of the reality I am forced
to live and learn of.
Magic insults my mind,
my heart, the coffee in my cup,
the steam that makes its
presence known in sunlight.
I have no use for lines
and lies and lore
written in the darkness
of our early fears,
luring us from learning
done against the liturgy
that strives to steal the
wonder woven from letters
and numbers unwilling to bow
or break before superstition.
I believe in the seasons of the year
and the stretch of a day;
the length of shadows
extending further and becoming
less descriptive of their casters.
My garden has taught me
everything I need to know
of caring and kindness.
My aging face reminds me
I am just a metaphor
and that I must rest,
for I have worked all week
proving gravity and love.
Copyright © henry toromoreno, 2009. All rights reserved.
Posted in american, angels, culture, miscellaneous, new, poetry, strange, writing | Tagged against superstition, anti-religious poetry, atheism, atheist poetry, love poetry, love-hate poetry, poem, poems, poetry, religious poetry | 1 Comment »
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