Masked
The skin is just a mask of flesh and bones
To be judged by its color of the outer look
Naked eyes can measure forms and hones
But blind to the soul living within this look
A smile can pretend to mask pain and sorrow
But it can capture and tame a genuine friend
To eye of one's image from head down to toe
It's as silly as a mindful-tongue that's unkind
A mirror can replicate the truest picture of us
But too mute to speak of what's hidden behind
Expensive clothes worn to cover a hairy ass
Serve same purpose as of that second hand
A blanket may hold us from cold in winter time
In a house, small or big, shielding us from rain
But what is a home if ugly souls are living in
To torment a mind to spawn again and again
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poem by Efren Petalver Carranza
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At The Minor's Field
The Li'l Leaguer's now in uniforms,
And the ball game is ‘bout to begin.
My young hero in position one,
For the Orioles against the Indians;
Kevin stepped on the pitcher's plate,
"Go! Orioles, " the parents cheered.
"Batter's in, " the umpire yelled,
He pitched, the ball went wild.
"Ball, " the umpire called. Again,
He pitched to the batter's shin.
Hit by pitch, the batter walks on base,
Still at first when the catcher missed.
"Ball, " 2 and 0, the umpire signed,
And some parents began to whine.
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poem by Efren Petalver Carranza
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In Depth of Struggle
Again, Lord here I am in another phase of trial
That's weakening my faith - a cry for help! I shall
Leave your "Footprints in the Sand, " for mine are
Too weak to gait through the crooked road; yet far
To reach the promise of your indemnity of hope -
[If there is] What else you got for me to cope?
You know very well this heart to people I care,
But they took this kindness for granted as I bear
These open and willing hands to share what I got
No matter how much though it's not really a lot.
I need not to question you for I hold the answer;
I need not to utter for I always have same prayer,
But how long will I suffer in this depth of struggle,
That each time I work with it, it becomes harder,
And harder for my mind, body, and soul to handle;
So, guide this faith stronger, for I'm losing it slowly;
My decision… my confidence… my trustworthy -
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poem by Efren Petalver Carranza
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Can You Feel It?
Can you feel the voice of an infant’s cry
of thirst and hunger for mother’s arm?
Can you feel the tears on a young girl’s face
that blurred her vision to see an empty bed?
Can you fill the space in a husband’s arms
tightly closed on his chest by her absence?
Why! Why one must destroy a happy home
with a mother and wife so loving now gone?
Is it all about our faith that has to be divided
in groups to prove who’s right and wrong?
Is it all about money, fame, power to conquer
the world and destroy it if they can’t win?
Is it all about the colors of our skins to differ
our cultures and traditions and fight for it?
Or, is it all greed and jealousy to leave marks
or scars in our hearts only to visit the past?
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poem by Efren Petalver Carranza
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San Francisco - 1981
My ignorance glittered like gold to whose eyes
Were larger than their mouth could speak;
Gesture of unspoken words melted me like ice,
The bar was such my place to be the freak.
Site of no expectation, liaison of men to men,
But how could they believe me then;
At the entrance, where I knew not, I walked in
With a man who happened to be a cousin.
Pride dissolved my color which I could not change,
But my nativity has pleaded for my innocence,
This language that didn’t come with my existence
Taught me no words to reason for my defense;
Of such question, I didn’t understand such a word,
That embarrassed me for my name is not Gay,
Strange as I sounded, I came here without a clue,
And who was I to disrespect to each own virtue.
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poem by Efren Petalver Carranza
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Let's Build Our Friendship
Imagine! An old oak tree stood solely
In the fall of wilderness
Under the cloudless sky in its darkness
And the wind whistling but in forceless thread
You, the son of red robin,
Learnt to fly for that first worm
Fear not from the violent tide
But a cloud to a great storm
I envy your wings to my arms
To reach your highest flights
For mine is to toil this ground
Deep to my nails to seed mine
Not yours! Neither should I share
But If my destroyers make you live
You're my best friend to be around
Here you sing, while my fingers dance
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poem by Efren Petalver Carranza
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Life and Friendship
To be laughed at, ridiculed or mocked,
to be disdained and or to be liked,
believed, and to be praised,
we own ourselves.
We are the masters of our own wellbeing,
and all the rights and wrongs
we seemed to know it all;
as a result, we become stubborn or too stubborn
to be dictated, directed, or redirected.
Thus, the insights of our dreams
are roads we follow
– either we stumble or fall,
but God has given us
the strength to rise and move on.
Friends are not all perfect ribbons of God’s gift:
among the circle, there are leaders in front of us,
helpers on our sides,
and some who might stab us in our back.
But all in one, they are true inspiration
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poem by Efren Petalver Carranza
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Summer-sun Kissed Goodbye
Weary eye of sun from mountain peeked;
Reddened to leave the day as summer says goodbye;
Not a farewell for another season’s break;
Fall will come undress leaves, trees as naked to eye.
May its wave taunting the feet engraved on sands;
Erased yet memories remained in mind;
The ocean held the sun’s streak as if for last glance,
Of summer-sun now leaving us behind;
Bones of trees, dust to dust now unseen;
Fled with the wind, dirt etched on the cacti’s tomb;
Tumbleweeds rolling in a dreadful scene;
As ghostly barren lay yet for another spring-womb;
As the fog crawled before the morning sun,
An eyelet through the fingers of clouds, it’d shun;
Clear the sky for the playgrounds of young
Birds eyeing to a new paradise when winter comes;
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poem by Efren Petalver Carranza
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Spring Lovers
Love comes like a rose-vine clinging upward
Grasping for that first cool breeze of spring air
With a kiss of sunrise to its beauty’s reward
Fragrance burst out from its eminent bud’s lair.
When withered tree stands upon winter’s bliss,
And a snow shimmers on its branches’ content,
Love comes in spring for new leaves then to hiss,
Till this season’s course breakthrough its intent
When castles of clouds assent playful birds
Glide high and low beyond their leafy shrines
And the sunset’s amber blush oceans’ greens,
Spring is from the hearts of many sky’s herds
When the prairie cast its colors from the distant,
Unfold their leaves to dance with the windward,
And the cattle begins to sheave in a wide verdant
Spring spread love to the land of the shepherd
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poem by Efren Petalver Carranza
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AIP [Ageing In Progress]
Every seasons change, we grow old
Each year that passes by, we wrinkle
Even a rose, it drops its dried petals
Till it’s a bulb, like an old man’s bald
Human life, in each journey, we wonder
How minds think and act as it travels far
To see the unseen beyond the universe
To record, write, picture and mesmerize
As we walk in to the room of change
These desires are constantly spinning
For we’re always in need of new things
Better or greater than we already spent
But sometimes we have favorite things
That’s hard to let it go off of our hands
Like jackets or shoes to wear on and on
Though how old and worn to be thrown
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poem by Efren Petalver Carranza
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