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La Tormenta
A native of Seattle, Tomás is a civil rights attorney, social activist, world traveler, teacher and lecturer. "Yazoo City Blues" is Tomás' most recent volume of prose and poetry. Others include "Time of the Poet," "Dark Symphony in Duet" with the late Sarah Fabio, and "Two Races, One Face," with John Peterson. His words appear in various publications and literary journals including the Seattle Times, The Seattle Review, Sheila Na Gig, Vision Magazine, The Poetry Conspiracy, The Publication, Urban Walls, Collectively Creatin,' the National Catholic Reporter, Magee Park Poets 2003, San Diego Arts & Poets Magazine. He has performed with jazz greats Charles McPherson, cousin Clark Gayton and Daniel Jackson. He has taught verse writing at the San Diego Writing Center and the Girl's Rehabilitation Facility in San Diego. He began the Poetry Workshop in La Jolla at D.G. Wills bookstore and co-founded San Diego Poets' Press. Visit his Web site to learn more about him.
By Tomás Gayton
i
In late July Carlos wheels off the road
under darkening clouds and crackling sky
we cross into trackless night
Jack rabbits scurry from cholla to ocotillo
dashing in and out of cosmic light
We recline on white granite
watching flashes of light loop and leap
across the brooding southern sky
Daggers of light randomly strike
the sable bosom of mother earth
Our eyes wide open in wordless wonder
on a barren rock in Anza Borrego
ii
We camp under a granite cliff on Indian hill
sharing time and space with Ancestral spirits
Desert demons dance and frolic in my sleep
until dawn awakens my slumbering soul
Published October 2005
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