In Montenita

I met a man
with an invisible wife
who lives inside the wind
of Montenita,

so I cried for him,
and he told me not to be sad,
that Gisela and Francesco (the angels)
are there, appearing in her
dreams and telling her things
about Heaven,

about how in Ecuadorian streets,
there are hidden stairways to el cielo

where my sorrows
would be captured and dried
by the breeze, and put before
me to crack in half.

A Decent Voodoo

My soul is caught sleeping
on the red dusk
of a shanty town,
where the only atrocity
is waking.

There is fire in my
handprints as I smooth
up the stars,

And for a moment
I finally rest,

a decent voodoo
through me,
I see my ghosts
shake off.

Bio: Lisa Marie Basile is a poet and writer from New York City.  She is also Editor and Founder of Caper Literary Journal, a monthly journal of poetry, prose and author interviews themed around the Speakeasy aesthetic.  She’s been published in CommonLine, Melusine, Vox Poetica, Phsyiognomy in Letters and Aphros Literary Magazine, among others.  She has received 6 writing awards from Pace University NYC’s Annual Writing Contest, for which she attained two first-place awards in poetry and fiction.  She also has recently received a winning spot as featured blogger on Redroom.com, a writing community site, and she has completed a full-length poetry manuscript.