to Archbishop Oscar A. Romero

   One day of god
   drinking coffee in my patio
   nothing is normal--
       not the calla
       with its penis of gold
       nor the iris
       like purple lava
       a volcano spills.
   I find in the depths of the cup
   chasubles embroidered
   with black moths
   & red stains--
       the sun fires
       a scintillation of silver bullets
       & of candles drowned--
           there is blood in its shine.
   I place the cup on its saucer
   with a most tender care
   as if it were a chalice
   & say the litany:
           Guatemala
           Nicaragua
           El Salvador
   & one side of my heart
   tastes white & sweet
   like cane sugar
       & the other,
           like coffee,
               bitter & black.

1999.

I rather like this man’s vivid brush and rich sense of color. Extremely rich, kind of like a visual version of Colombian coffee.

Wonderfully evocative - the beauty of South America hiding blood and violence. Black moths and red stains to remind you of bullet holes and splashes of blood from all the people shot in long years of guerilla warfare, coups and counter coups.

Yes, a lot like a perfect blend of cane sugar and coffee, as the man says.

— Suresh

Biography

Rafael Jesús González

was born in El Paso, Texas, attended the University of Texas at El Paso, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, & the University of Oregon. Professor of Creative Writing & Literature, he taught at the University of Oregon, Western State University of Colorado, Central Washington State University, the University of Texas at El Paso, and for thirty years at Laney College. His poetry and scholarly articles are widely published in reviews & anthologies in the U.S., Mexico & abroad; his collection of verse El Hacedor De Juegos / The Maker of Games published by Casa Editorial, San Francisco, went into a second printing. Also a visual artist, his work has been exhibited at the Oakland Museum; the Mexican Museum of San Francisco; & others in the U.S., Mexico, and abroad. He was Poet in Residence at the Oakland Museum of California and the Oakland Public Library under the Poets & Writers “Writers on Site Program” in 1996.

– http://www.think-ink.net/rafael/index.htm