The Sky of Omar Salinas

The sky of Omar Salinas is full of birds.
No mass-extinction here. Being a creature
held to the ground by his Mexican and
Chicano heritage, his roots always try to
drag him underground. He envies birds.
Larks, starlings, pigeons, sparrows. Hell,
he even envies buzzards. They represent
a freedom from his illness: manic depression.
And we’re not talking about the Jimi Hendrix
song. Because his illness is like death to him,
it attacks him like the Grim Reaper, but leaves
him alive, in pain, squirming in agony. It
leaves him alive to face the torture life becomes
for him when he comes down from the elation
of the good days. In each and every poem he
creates an escape module to the sky via the
birds. But gravity brings every bird back down
to earth.


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