Remember When I Was the Fragile

"birdwing butterfly"

photo by Ross (Dragon)

Remember When I was the Fragile

by Adrian Ernesto Cepeda

“I knew nothing but shadows and I thought them to be real.”

~ Oscar Wilde

Wandering lost within the Quarter, I always

felt the shadow spinning always following me

during my midnight street car pilgrimage

to the Garden District with every hit, shot,

inhaling even deeper mist I disappeared awake

Just a reflection/Just a glimpse/Just a little

reminder beating the night, morning always

greeting me, hazy, light invading my sight,

as I stayed up later snorting some ecstasy

had me soaring ten miles high, as I land

inside the tub taking a rolling bath for days,

wander outside again, my skin this is what it feels

like as the wind chill caresses the new flesh like

her kisses feeling invisible, tripping with all

those Orleans angels’ spirits no one else can see

spinning like shadows mouthing it didn’t turn out

the way you wanted it to as my vinyl keeps returning

needle lifted landing on my favorite part, within

each vein, the mark has been made, how can I

complain feeling the gushing as the ceiling fan flows

within the rhythms injecting the most addictive

Wretched shadows: The hopes and prays/The better

days/The far aways grinning, Back at the beginning/

Sinking/Spinning eyes closed, taking me lower

as I keep embracing The Great Below.

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Adrian Ernesto Cepeda is the author of the full-length poetry collection Flashes & Verses… Becoming Attractions from Unsolicited Press, the poetry chapbook So Many Flowers, So Little Time from Red Mare Press, Between the Spine published with Picture Show Press and La Belle Ajar, inspired by Sylvia Plath’s 1963 novel, will be published by CLASH Books in 2020.

His poetry has been featured in Cultural Weekly, Frontier Poetry, Yes, Poetry, 24Hr Neon Magazine, Red Wolf Editions, poeticdiversity, The Wild Word, The Fem, Pussy Magic Press, Tiferet Journal, Rigorous, Palette Poetry, Rogue Agent Journal, Tin Lunchbox Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, Pasadena City College’s Inscape Magazine, Neon Mariposa Magazine,The Yellow Chair Review and Lunch Ticket’s Special Issue: Celebrating 20 Years of Antioch University Los Angeles MFA in Creative Writing.

Adrian is an LA Poet who has a BA from the University of Texas at San Antonio and he is also a graduate of the MFA program at Antioch University in Los Angeles where he lives with his wife and their cat Woody Gold. You can connect with Adrian on his website: http://www.adrianernestocepeda.com/