Our
Lady of Laughter
These lips
cross the challenge
your fantasies impose
on my melancholy
because of dreams you had
by an Asian seashore
because I forget the dead
listen to my poems
because we live
for skin and foreplay
on our kisses
Sergio A. Ortiz is a retired educator, poet, painter, and
photographer from Puerto Rico. Flutter Press released his debut
chapbook, At the Tail End of Dusk,
in 2009; Ronin Press released his second chapbook, topography of a desire, in 2010.
His third chapbook, An Animal
Resembling Desire was published by Finishing Line Press in
2018. His poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Valparaiso Poetry Review, Loch Raven
Review, Drunk Monkeys, Algebra of Owls, Free State Review, SurVision, and The Paragon Journal. He is
currently working on his first full-length collection of poems, Elephant Graveyard.