LUZ Poetry Slam

Here is a Poetry Slam that I presided over with an English Literature class at the University of Zulia (LUZ). These poems were produced by students earning their Licensure in Modern Languages and they are all at least trilingual.

1st place: Luisanna

Untitled

Yesterday at night
I was thinking of something to write
But nothing was coming to my head
Nothing good for me to explain

Somebody asked me: Who told you
to do this?
I said: A guy in the
University
He comes from the USA
I think Baltimore is his place

Write about a feeling
It is a good topic
But I was not in the mood
for something too corny

What about love, my sister said
I'm not in love, what a shame!
Could be about nature
that's really inspiring
Could be about you
Can you imagine?

Don't want to be corny, Don't want to be deep
I'll just write about something
I don't know what it is.


Untitled

Look where we are
We are quite the same
Remember what we've been through
And we, still in good shape

We shared so many things
Nowadays you don't remember me
We were together for a long time
And not one of you still by my side

We were friends
or maybe not
We were not friends
but neither foes

We are still with our lives
Wondering why
the space and time
have put us apart

No matter what we are
No matter where we are
It's over, our friendship
has come and passed.


2nd place: Laura

Untitled

It's a disaster to register here
I mean,
it's fair for us to wake up at 3?
to do a stupid line?
And if it is,
Why you the idiot at the door
Let that guy pass
I've been here for a long time
And I've seen how things get really bad
Whew that guy
That arrived at 9
Passes and blows away my chance
I just want a simple chance
To get in there
and get my subjects done at last.
I'm really mad about this
But what can a LUZ student do
But die here.
So, what I'm saying is
Improve once and for all this process
And let students Be.
Because whether you want it or not
One miraculous day
We will be finally out of here


Exposed

Oh. What a terrible mistake!
We left the comdom wrapper over there
Now, yes. Charity and Mrs. Chastity
want us to talk to them.
For how long has this been going on?
Mrs. Chastity, your mother said.
For three months now Mom
I must say.
What a terrible day that was.
When our parents saw us.
Becoming horrible creatures
and stop being their child.

3rd place: Arturo

Last minute deception

It's so comfortable I don't mind the dirt.
for the first time I want someone walking on my bed,
someone besides her.
someone who'd tell me the truth,
someone who would argue with me,
someone whose eyes don't sweat
It feels like she's unworthy of this,
but what the hell? I couldn't have chosen her
or the other way around,
but I certainly know
that if I could live this again
I wouldn't have picked someone like her, so patronizing
but I won't live this again
and before I go away for good
I'll tell her there's nobody to blame
knowing that my words she will omit
and that a crime she will commit
I regret it was with her,
but what the hell? I won't live this again


Lama Sabachthani

You! you revolutionary sword-using pacifist,
the controversial turning point made flesh,
you mockery-victim martyr.
You fencilitilamine-producing being
who understood the submissive, the masochist,
the sadist, and the narcissist,
even when you did not share their adrenaline erection
while they watched you lacerated and humble.

We! we mentally-challenged ignorants!
we did not hesitate while you loved us with your broken smile
the forgiving costume we tried to erase by reddening your visage

And then the arrival, the predictable morbid scene,
more like a one-pose photo session,
a boast-deserving view,

And then. there's the pain,
the need from your veins
And our wound-producing lack of understanding
that made even you, the stoic, squirm.

But it was the hesitation whisper
coming from your broken mouth
the one who caused the delayed satire,
the saming discovery of your nature,
your partial humanity.