Adrian Ernesto Cepeda is an LA Poet who is currently enrolled in the MFA Graduate program at Antioch University in Los Angeles where he lives with his wife and their cat Woody Gold. His poetry has been featured in The Yellow Chair Review, Thick With Conviction, Silver Birch Press and one of his poems was named Cultured Vultures’ Top 3 Poems of the Week. You can connect with Adrian on his website: http://www.adrianernestocepeda.com/
All over the world, they close their eyes.
Seeing them float and
drowning under the last
wave. Reach out and pull
them in, let us speak,
exchange while embracing
a stranger, lost adrift
and not turn your back
estranged? Why not turn
off the TV voices all
echoing blame, closing
their eyes while spinning
the globe as the world
explodes— don’t be jaded
by the scroll of those slanted
screens; don’t swallow that
aftertaste of shame, inside
your mouth—reclaim, a choice,
blink back—envision if you just
glimpse beyond the raft and gaze
into the oceans reflection of all
those souls stranded, starving
for more than attention— they
see, shivering like you, like me,
forget the tan, the look, the skin—
we all hunger the same.
