Gilbert Ortega

Love does fade like inspiration
When it doesn't meet one's expectations
I vow to write not one more love song
My heart strings have not strummed in so long
...

A star was cast in a Hollywood passion play
About the method actor who faithfully portrayed a suicide
And life imitates art in a reel of surreal images
A rarity to be enjoyed on celluloid; black and white red blood.
...

Like the Mona Lisa canvas
or the rock that formed de Milo
As shifting sands in Saharan sunsets
your facade becomes as rich.
...

Can't you see the risk I take
To chance myself at your fair wake
To ask your hand and beg your love
With starry eyes these words I prove.
...

There's SOMETHING that I wish for more than ANYTHING
SOMETHING that takes precedence over EVERYTHING
IT's really SOMETHING quite
small
...

Off with lamps and on with candles
Off with boots and on with sandals
Into bed til comes the morning
A storm is brewing, do take warning
...

How did it all pass me by
In the thump of a heartbeat or the blink of an eye
The moment was like a familiar phantom
But my words were, once again, for ransom
...

...

I can't say I've ever been poisoned by love
Like you have
I've never crashed and burned so bad
Don't know what that's all about
...

With love and care I fashioned a box
With golden keys and heart-shaped locks.
Cherubs etched into the frame
And, for its hue, a blood-red stain.
...

I cry these woes from deep within
My fragile soul worn paper thin
Trapped inside this dark arena
My heart cries out for Marcelena
...

I woke up this morning, after dreaming of you
The sun wasn't shining, the sky wasn't blue
But I didn't take notice, after dreaming of you
The streets were flooding with water waist deep
...

I walk through gilded doors
Glide, ghostlike, on polished wooden floors
My eyes, even as those of the penitent procession,
Gleam with flame, bright as the fury of possession
...

I had sent no invitations
No bottles out to sea
No horsemen in the moonlight
Bringing word of hopes, of dreams or me.
...

On a night that was so cold, and crystal
Formed upon the vines and thistle
I journeyed through the hollows
That no men dare to follow
...

'Twas a bleak and stormy winter's night
Winds howled like wolfen mourn
A stranger stalked and caused a fright
In the gaunt Gatekeeper's frightful form
...