Robert L. Giron   I BREATHE I breathe in the sea wind-- sunlight washes my skin, like the seagulls I fly towards the flame.   A STITCH IN TIME for Ventura Valdez Winter light rises up in smoke, I reach for my cup to warm my bones-- an extra puff and stitch, stitch to crochet this quilt. My crooked fingers frozen by blizzard snow, the stitching keeps time with the ricocheting of the cast iron stove. I breathe in and exhale like the Mediterranean upon the coast of Spain. I long for sun, hoping my quilt will catch the rays.   from WRESTLING WITH WOOD spirit of death passes over us, the omen locks our fate ............el paso, 1981 >>>>>> severed to the spine, east sun brings no balm for the bleeding wound ............austin, 1983 >>>>>> the oak topples, nearly rent in two, wood shards of yellow glass ............washington, 1991 Judy Jashinsky Artemisa Poses 80" x 32", oil on wood, 1998 see more work by Judy Jashinsky     GRANDMA Keeping in step with time, she endured. A boulder beneath angels' falls. Gray crossed brown, branches of twilight nesting on her head. Tranquil she seemed, yet storms of anguish lodged in her side. Sentry of her garden, she pulled weeds choking flowers of her content.   THE SOULS OF COUNTLESS TRIBES i dream with the sun ray on my face and feel warm i walk upon the desert sand in search of hope but find only broken arrows and bones no longer ivory now brittle like teeth gnashed to fight the pain of flesh skinned for hide; the souls of countless tribes echo amongthe rock in the shadows of the sky i dream with the sun ray on my face and i feel cold     Robert L. Giron is the author of five collections of poetry: Impressions françaises [French Impressions], Wrestling with Wood, Recuerdos [Memories], Metamorphosis of the Serpent God, and Songs for the Spirit. His latest work is an English translation of noted Mexican novelist Jesús Gardea's posthumous poetry collection, Canciones para una sola cuerda/Songs for a Single String, which was one of three finalists in the Violet Crown Award for Literary Prose/Poetry, sponsored by Barnes & Noble and the Texas Writers' League in Austin, TX. He writes in English, Spanish, and French. He is a professor of English and creative writing at Montgomery College in Takoma Park, MD, and is the founder of Gival Press. Published in Volume 6, Number 3, Summer 2005.   To read more by this author: Robert L. Giron: The Whitman Issue