Antonio's Rape


that zigzag bridge
reminded him of Spanish
cemeteries
with tin mirrors
and plastic flowers

on his bike he ventured
too far from his shadow--
death sprawls
on his dresser
like a headless chicken

the child grew old
covered by the leaves
under the hammock bridge ...
the weight of the man’s body
sucked his breath out

Narcissus
bled and died on his birthday ...
barely ten
with a swab in his rectum,
Shangri-La on his face

Oh my, Sergio...this tanka sequence is powerfully distressing.
I don't know what to say. The rape of a child is ghastly, and this one died...

Your words bring tears to my eyes. And the lines are so visual.

Please explain who Antonio was, as well as the reference to Narcissus in the last strophe. There appears to be reality and myth in your poem, but I'm in the dark about that.

BTW, shouldn't tankas be in Hermes? They are a form of poetry.

Hope to hear from you,
Syl***

Antonio is fictional Sylvia so please don't cry. It just happens so much that I had to write something about it. Hermes? that is another forum. I've never posted in it, never read there either. Should I post this there?

Sergio

Sergio - you surely know how to get under the skin of your reader! The optimism and fragility of a beautiful small boy, brutally wiped out to satisfy the casual urges of a self obsessed man.
The image of that child's ravaged body will go with me today, to keep company with all the other images that make me despair of the human race.

A small query - I was slightly disorientated by your mention of, 'his dresser'.
'death sprawls
on his dresser
like a headless chicken'
I had been transported outside, looking in horror at the Spanish style bridge - and what lay beneath. But, for a Brit like me, a dresser is an indoor piece of furniture. I know how different cultures can add confusion, so wondered where I might have lost my way.

A tremendously strong poem -

Leo

Thank you Leo, that part is at reflection of the narrator ( the headless chicken on the his dresser). Thank you.

Sergio

OK, Sergio. It certainly happens an awful lot, in my country too. Switch on the T.V. and you get a new case of violence to kids, women, families, oldsters, the lot.
Now that the narcos have spread out all over S.A., violence becomes daily worse. They don't care at all about lives in general, they have 'sicarios' who're paid to kill anybody, even mascots...whatever.

Hermes is another forum for poetry with various forms, not F.V.
Haiku, Tanka, Quatrains and all short forms are usually posted there, along with sonnets, etc. And anything that rhymes in proper style.

But I wouldn't worry about that, Sergio. You get great crits over there, from experts! And troubles brew, sometimes.

I mentioned it so that perhaps you'd take a peek. Your choice, unless Lori asks you to post it there. I'm supposed to make members aware, that's all.

Cheers,
Syl***

Wow, druglords all over S. A. That is so terrible. They are destroying Mexico. Thank you for the information about Hermes. I don't rhyme but this is a form poem. Thank you Sylvia.

Sergio

Wow!! This certainly hit this reader hard! There is so much evil in the world that even children suffer at the hands of the human race. These stark images will certainly stay in my mind tonight. I will come back later to see if I have any suggestions.
Yes, a tanka should be in Herme's - I should have thought as you have written tankas before & I forgot that they belong there.

Snow