My Stories

They come to me,
whether I am looking for them or not.
Stories always find me, especially
when I swear I have no time

to entertain strange mythologies.
I don’t have to set out the fancy dishes.
They eat well enough
from the things that nourish me, 

and do me the courtesy
of skimming off the poison
leaving their warmth in its place. 

They know how much I need them,

especially in spaces that press in so tightly

it seems like I barely have enough breath

to say, "Once upon a time." Still,

my stories will always find a way. Deep in my bones
I know the distance between them and me
is only as far as I allow it to be.

Photo by Kourosh Qaffari on Unsplash

Song Choice: Found/ Tonight performed by Lin Manuel Miranda & Ben Platt

This poem was created in response to the prompt at Poems and Storytellers United, Weekly Scribblings #50, Down In My Bones. 

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Where Virtue Lies

Don’t call yourself a friend to the flower when you try to kill its roots.

Photo by Alexis Chloe on Unsplash

Liner notes for this Groove: This is my first attempt at an American Sentence. I'm pretty pleased with this attempt and might try another again soon. It was created for Poets and Storytellers United's Weekly Scribblings prompt, Words of an Unprecedented Year. I tried to tackle allyship, but it looks like a bit of virtue signaling crept in. 

Song Choice: Hound Dog by Big Momma Thornton

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Rommy Hears a Who

“Do you want
to travel through time and space?
Do you want
to see the stars?”
she asked.

My time travel needs were modest.
Back a year,
back to my old grade school
would have been enough.

“Have you seen
a sonic screwdriver?
Have you seen
a flying police box?”

Seen, no.
TV at home never
tended towards the fantastical.

Mom had her telenovelas.

Dad, his deportes. 
And sometimes we had sitcoms.

I had experienced traveling
on the printed word
to Narnia, Ithaca,
and yes, to Great Britain.

But I travelled alone
an odd bookish brown duck
used to floating
across imaginary ponds.

“Do you want to travel together?
Do you want to meet the Doctor?”

“Who?”

We turned to local PBS channel.
I didn’t mind the odd effects
and the villains
that looked like militant pepper shakers.

I traveled
with a companion that afternoon
and later, several other times
by myself

to the present
when my children were big enough
so I could ask them,

“Do you want
to travel through time and space?
Do you want
to see the stars?”

You never forget your first doctor

Song Choice: It's Time by Imagine Dragons

This poem was created for Poets and Storytellers United's Weekly Scribblings prompt, Meme Madness.

By Rommy Cortez-Driks