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    Love

     

    Chapter 2 of Love and War includes: Opposites Attract, Voices in the Sky, and Portugese Say Love.

    Opposites Attract

    ​

    Men are hard, women are soft

    And that’s not just in bed

    Without women

    Men become cold, brittle, cruel

    Start lookin’ for another guy to duel

    Hard needs soft

    And soft don’t mean weak

    In this dictionary

    It’s just another word for unique

     

    Roles can be reversed

    But not our nature

    Yin and yang

    Tears and toys

    Flowers and monster trucks

    What’s going on?

    Voices in the Sky

    ​

    Dead tired, Cristina Marquez edged her car slowly onto her street, Avenida Grande, in South Gate. Despite the street’s name, it wasn’t much. Small houses in need of paint, too many cars. But at least the dead end street was quiet, isolated from the noise and violence of the neighborhood.

     

    Cristina’s supervisor at Long Beach Memorial Hospital had asked her to work overtime.

     

    “No, not tonight,” she answered.

             

    “Why not? You always work overtime when I ask you.”

    Portugese Say Love

    ​

    My mom was born in Portugal

    Under the sunny skies of a Catholic dictatorship

    Her dad was a holy roller preacher with a vision of heaven

    But a Baptist, so the whole family caught hell

    He

    Had the strength of his convictions

    To get him through the beatings and evictions

    She

    Had four sisters and two brothers

    Who had to share their father’s beefs

    And  protect her from all others

     

    But there was no protection from pops and all his rules

    No dancing

    No radios

    No music

    No way his kids would be the devil’s tools...

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