Jose Padua: A Beautiful Day on Earth
All I remember is that it was a beautiful sunny day when my mother came out of the fast food restaurant downtown near the bus station and walked to the … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Anti-Capitalist Manifesto in Celebration of the Spring
Love is everything that isn’t despair. I am almost tempted to say this even though I don’t believe it’s true because there are so many things in-between. A competition lost … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Take a Giant Step
All the out of business auto body shops on this slow highway, all the abandoned buildings with peeling paint, the vacant lots overgrown with junk trees and weeds bounded by … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Every Process of Living Begins with Short Steps
A hint of yellow shine appears at the window while the weak ticking of the clock is heard again between mumbled words. Our house is like an old man humming … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Pulling White Hairs
When I was a child I’d pull the white hairs from my mother’s head. It was a chore like any other—like making my bed in the morning, folding my clothes … Continue reading
Jose Padua: The Night Jimi Hendrix Died
The night Jimi Hendrix died I was unacquainted with the process of integrating chords and leads, or with the evolution from mannerism to baroque and then late baroque style. I … Continue reading
Jose Padua: My Obsessive Compulsive Order
When not done properly a simple action can have incredible consequences: sometimes I have to touch things twice, sometimes I have to close a door with my eyes closed, sometimes … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Joy
“I have a wee-wee,” my daughter would say when she was two and then she’d look at me and say “you have a wagina.” She knew it wasn’t true, but … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Reflections on 2043 Which According to the Most Recent Census Data Is the Year When Whites Will No Longer Be the Majority in the United States
Although the odds are against it if I am still alive and able I will walk out the door of my house my head held high my legs moving strong … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Notes from a Poem Rewritten while Listening to Prince
The first protest I ever attended was on a beautiful spring day and I was asked to leave. because I wasn’t animated enough for a spring day or for a … Continue reading
Jose Padua: The River after David Foster Wallace
Every love story may be a ghost story but some may also be stories about assassination and greed, depending on who’s in love and who the ghosts are and if … Continue reading
Jose Padua: A Simple Declaration of my Personal Philosophy
Efficiency is the enemy of art, purity the death of the soul. Curses are rarely stranded at the tip of my tongue, and the blades I work with are dull … Continue reading
Jose Padua: The Night We Tried to Get a Poet Arrested
I remember the night my friend and I tried to get a poet arrested for his crimes against literature, his hiding of horribly sentimental lines by speaking like a seller … Continue reading
Jose Padua: A Brief Meditation on the Days as They Rise
The other night my wife and I were talking about the murder of Walter Scott when our eleven year old daughter asked, “Why?” And she looked at my wife and … Continue reading →