Ode to Her Unibrow

“You did not understand what I am. I am love. I am pleasure, I am essence, I am tenacious. I am; simply I am…”—F.K.

They couldn’t see why
every wrinkling arrugado
dimple, every cicatrizscar
bellowing above
your curepo’s prickliest
equator, the short hair,
pelo uncurled the way you
downed half-full botellas
of vinos, shots of tequilas,
perfumed boquillas exhaling
fuma smoke from the side
of your labios—the aftertaste
smoky so hermosa from the longing
of your after-midnight beso kisses.
Every inch reflected a canvas,
each painful refrain, each
awkward sonrisa smile
reflecting a part of your nombre.
Art is not something that comes
from los dedos, each gripping
view of your paintings
each one oozes with aches
that shakes from your manos,
demanding more
than a life, your vida
reflecting a face hauntedly
encantado with grace, colorful
brushes combing all your pleasures
evoking todo fracturado
the broken trying to reveal
the essence of your agony
framing a corazon consumed
with exposing a single
entrancing piece, a part
of the unibrow vision—
that is Frida Kahlo.

Adrian Ernesto Cepeda is an LA poet and a recent graduate of the MFA 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, Frontier Poetry, and The Wild Word, and one of his poems was named the winner of Subterranean Blue Poetry’s 2016 “The Children of Orpheus” anthology/contest. You can connect with Adrian on his website: http://www.adrianernestocepeda.com/