Poems by Alberto Rios

Poems by Alberto Rios

Teodoro Luna's Two Kisses, by Alberto Rios

Mr. Teodoro Luna in his later years had taken to kissing
His wife
Not so much with his lips as wi...

On Gathering Artists, by Alberto Rios

Who does a job well, and very well—These are the artists, those curiousLights.

We are cobblers o...

November 2: Día de los muertos, by Alberto Rios

1
It is not simply the Day of the Dead—loud, and parties.More quietly, it is the day of my dead. ...

A House Called Tomorrow, by Alberto Rios

You are not fifteen, or twelve, or seventeen—You are a hundred wild centuries
And fifteen, bringi...

December Morning in the Desert, by Alberto Rios

The morning is clouded and the birds are hunched,More cold than hungry, more numb than loud,
Thi...

Nani, by Alberto Rios

Sitting at her table, she serves the sopa de arroz to me instinctively, and I watch her,the absol...

Don’t Go Into the Library, by Alberto Rios

The library is dangerous—Don’t go in. If you do
You know what will happen.It’s like a pet store o...

When There Were Ghosts, by Alberto Rios

On the Mexico side in the 1950s and 60s,There were movie houses everywhere
And for the longest ti...

When Giving Is All We Have , by Alberto Rios

                                              One river gives                                    ...

The Cities Inside Us, by Alberto Rios

We live in secret cities
And we travel unmapped roads.

We speak words between us that we recogni...

The Secret in the Mirror, by Alberto Rios

The mirror is dirty from the detritus of dailiness—I look in the mirror and am freckled.A week ou...

Faithful Forest, by Alberto Rios

 1.I will wait, said wood, and it did.Ten years, a hundred, a thousand, a million—It did not matt...

The Border: A Double Sonnet, by Alberto Rios

The border is a line that birds cannot see.The border is a beautiful piece of paper folded carele...

Perfect for Any Occasion, by Alberto Rios

1.Pies have a reputation.And it’s immediate—no talk of potentialRegarding a pie.  It’s goodOr it ...

We Dogs of a Thursday Off, by Alberto Rios

The wine of uncharted days,
Their unsteady stance against the working world,

The intense intoxic...