My Soul Is

My soul is the water that was poured on my people

For protecting our equal rights

My soul is the club that beat on the teenage Latinos

On the wide open streets

My soul is the teeth of a dog that was released

To my Latino brothers and sisters

My soul is the dirt that my Mexican brothers

Had to kneel on to pick fruit

My soul is the badge that won’t let my Latino

Brother come to this country for trabajo

My soul, my soul, my soul

What soul

© Genesis Cardenas, 2011

The Oak Tree

The intuition of a dark place

Trapped in a soul of an old oak tree
Giving life to be reborn

As a young apple tree awaiting

Maturity for a chance to give life

Apples are the fruit of ignorance

Souls ignorant to everything around

Born slowly rotting with destructive knowledge

Until that one point where the soul

Is yours again and you become

An old oak tree standing tall

In a cemetery of life

© Shawn Gaytan, 2011

Slayer of Avarice

My soul is the arc angel of lost memories.

The thoughts of the dead brained and deceased conformists.

My soul tastes the defeat of the lost; a taste that isn’t sweet –

Except to the governed.

My soul carries the scythe of despair and lack of will.

My soul commemorates the reality of those who fought.

My soul is the taker of the deceitful, scalps the ass of those

who speak likewise to their feral excrements.

My soul knows the truth of everlasting light.

It knows the despair, but also knows the truth of joy.

My soul is the wielding slayer of avarice and sin.

My soul is me.

© Matthew Castillo, 2011

My Soul

My soul is the root

Of evil and hatred

My soul is violence

Is joy and love

My soul is the dead

Carcass being eaten

By the vulture

The creature devouring

Its own heart

My soul is the man

Stomping on a face

And will not stop

My soul is a broken nose

A bloody mouth, a black eye

A broken jaw, a ripped ear

A busted lip, broken teeth

A cracked skull my soul

Wants blood and that is love 

© Ruben Delgado, 2011