The Freedom to Commit Suicide

nowhere left to look
the rain cleared the way
no dream with open doors
the only devotee
confinement

outside, night strolls
on its high heels
I lie in wait of myself
the hours trip
on what I never say

Ms. Joplin
your voice rips apart
my face,
my tie― the mark
of all hanged men

then there is you
―contained noise,
acrobatics… I fall,
you hurt, I oscillate,
you heal

free me,
disappearing island
& painted sea,
not from memory but from
the light that is desire

___

___

Sergio A. Ortiz is a two-time Pushcart nominee, a four-time Best of the Web nominee, and 2016 Best of the Net nominee. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Valparaiso Poetry Review, Loch Raven Review, Drunk Monkeys, Algebra Of Owls, Free State Review, and The Paragon Journal.  He is currently working on his first full-length collection of poems, Elephant Graveyard.