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.