One of my poems from my collection, Up and Down Picoso Street, was published this weekend in the San Antonio Express-News. The other one, El Gallo – the Rooster, was published in the VIA Poetry Contest a few months ago. They are both very short poems which I condensed from longer ones as I was told to limit to eight lines. Here they are. Hope you like them.
Short Form Only
By Lupe Ruiz-Flores
Los vecinos on Picoso street, come income tax time
visit Doña Cuca, who does short form only.
Long lines gather outside her house,
wild pink bougainvillea, red hot geraniums, in terra cotta pots.
ten dollars is what she charges. Short form only.
El Gallo, the Rooster
By Lupe Ruiz-Flores
El gallo wakes everyone in the barrio 
before the sun is up
his crows can be heard down the street
he belongs to Doña Tencha
No need for an alarm clock
el gallo is there
exact time every day
struts down Picoso Street like he owns it.
