SCENES FROM AN ITALIAN RESTAURANT

Bronx, New York, Saturday morning...getting out of bed, showering, brushing my teeth, jumping into my blue jeans and my Polo shirt, sneakers...kissing mom goodbye "the Mets are playing today mom" "I know, they will win!"... running downstairs, picking up my car keys...into my red Ford Escort GT. Out to Leland Avenue in the Bronx... right on Gleason, right on Thieriot, right on Westchester Avenue, waving my friends goodbye, yes, they were going to Circle Pizza to hang out, right on White Plains Road for a mile then onto the Bruckner Expressway heading to Whitestone Bridge...oh what a pain in the ass waiting on line to pay the $1.00 toll, finally speeding on the bridge, goodbye Shea Stadium and my beloved and Amazin' Mets, bearing into the Van Wyck Expressway heading to JFK...oh there is the Belt Parkway heading to Verrazano, great, now on the Belt, a few miles, goodbye Queens, hello Brooklyn...need to get off at 86th Street...I'm there, goodbye guys at Vito's Pizza, we'll see you later...oh here is 18th Avenue...now left on 70th Street and left on 17th Avenue and left on 71st Street...half a block on the left side... "Hey Rocky!! How are you?"..."Hey José, what'us up?"...big kiss for Rocco Leone who was sitting by the front porch "Hey José, the Mets are no good!" "Oh Rocky, give them time"...open the door.."Hi José! Vinny's upstairs getting ready" "Vicky love you!" "How's your mom?" "Mom is feeling a little better, thanks!" "And your sisters and brother?" "Good, my brother is in Okinawa with the Marines and my sisters are working even today" big hug and kiss for Vicky Leone. "Hey José! You're early" "Vin, early for lunch, late for breakfast, right Vic?" Vinny kisses his mom, out the door, kiss for Rocky "Rocky, don't lose faith, the Mets will do it"..Rocky sticks his tongue out and gives the Mets the thumbs down...getting into the car...drive a few blocks, 13th avenue to Il Forno Pizzeria "what are you guys having?" "José will have two squares and Coke and I will have two round ones and a Diet Coke" says Vinny as we head to our usual table and greet our friends...great indelible scenes at our Italian Restaurant.
Oh Rocky, I miss you so much; oh mom, I miss you so much...I promise that if the Mets win the Pennant or the World Series again I will make a trip to visit both of you in Brooklyn and Paramus, NJ to put Mets pennants on your graves....Billy Joel, thanks for the songs, thank you for putting the New York spirit in our hearts and souls...

MUNDO DE FIERAS

Ya la tormenta ha pasado, tras las riadas del escándalo y el planeado desmadre, el río vuelve a su cauce normal una vez más...
atrás quedan los que pensaban que eran importantes viviendo de la sombra de un buen árbol del cual quisieron hacer leña, no, eso no sucedío, una vez más los zopilotes se quedan con sus migajas tragando polvo y buscando a quien afianzarse porque el diluvio no les dará una segunda oportunidad. Qué se despidan del Visitante que jamás volverá a enseñar la costilla para que las fieras hambrientas quieran morder un poco... sí, el río está volviendo a su cauce y vos te quedas con una cachucha como recuerdo de lo que nunca será.

(Mundo de Fieras, JR Orellana, 2012)

I REMEMBER YOU

Listening to that lonely violin, looking out my window and seeing the beautiful blue sky in this bright winter day, I hold my pen in mid-sentence and I remember you. So many years have gone by, so many regrets enveloped in my cowardice of letting you go. I always remember you just as you never forget me; me, here, with an empty career as my reward for walking away and you with your family so far away remembering the last embrace with the sudden wind of a passing train. So I listen to this song, Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale", and time and again I return to that day and my mind wanders off with the lyrics for about six or seven minutes and then I resume my writing and arm myself with a smile to see the next patient. Many blessings to you, wherever you are at this moment.

Letter To A Friend

I want to tell you that if tomorrow I die
I will watch and care for you from Heaven;
I will advocate to lessen your pain and suffering...
If I die tomorrow.

If you die tomorrow
I will always love and remember you
and every night we will have good conversation
If you die tomorrow.

I want you to know that I love you so much;
you are so important to me...
in this life many times it is not difficult
but sometimes it's inconvenient to tell you
for whatever reason.

I do know that you are aware how much I appreciate you
but if I do not ever see you again,
this note is witness of my love for you.

And if I die and you never tell me of your love
don't worry...
the fact that we have shared so much
is enough for me to know that you love me.

We never know when is our last breath and day on Earth,
that is why I am telling you today,
in front of friends and enemies...
That I love you!

2012 POLITICAL CROSSROADS: An Editorial

Over the past three years we have seen our country wrecked with high unemployment, out-of-control spending, families losing their jobs and houses, and little hope for our future generations. There is plenty of blame to go around, certainly George W. Bush’s Administration has to shoulder some responsibility but Barack Obama has been President for three years and he owns this sinking ship. He has failed as President and he knows it, but true to his inherent lack of character he points the finger at everyone and everything else but himself. Barack Obama is an interesting study of the psyche of the human being. I do not claim to know him as a person but I have seen that personality in the past while I attended CUNY-City College of New York in Harlem, as a medical resident in Boston City Hospital in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and worked for three years at Misericordia Hospital right in the center of West Philadelphia. Oh did I learn to spot that leopard…Barack Obama is the typical chimera made up of the worst of all its parts. He has presided over a dysfunctional Washington and has taken our country on a path of destruction and class warfare not seen since the days of the Kingfish. He has been unable to make tough decisions and implement them. Oh yes, he said that he killed Osama Bin Laden and decapitated Al Qaeda: he deserves some but not all the credit.
America is on the wrong path, everybody knows it and the polls show it. We cannot trust this individual anymore; he is like the scorpion that killed the frog while the frog was carrying it on its back helping him cross the river. Just like the frog asked the scorpion “why did you killed me? Now both of us are going to die?” The scorpion replied “it is my nature”. America, we cannot carry this scorpion on our backs any longer because it is his nature to kill us with more taxes and more spending…and more lies and more “blame someone else but me” and more class warfare. His theme was never “hope and change”…it was always “divide and conquer”, we just did not see it. This chimera has a little of Reverend Wright, a little of Bill Ayers, a little of Karl Marx, a little of George W. Bush, a little of Leon Trotsky and lots of Manuel Noriega.
In 2012 we must vote for someone with the following traits: Electability, character, leadership and a conservative philosophy. America is not a liberal country; we have respect for laws, celebrate everybody’s right to pursue happiness and the ideals to improve one-self and lift one’s family to a better future. We respect the right of people to have their privacy and to enjoy the fruits of their labor. I plan to vote for Mitt Romney. He may not be perfect, none of us are. He may not be a gifted orator like Satan while tempting Jesus in the wilderness, but Romney is able to communicate his thoughts and his ideas with simplicity and humility. He is not George W. Bush and certainly he is not Reaganesque, but in these times he offers a steady hand and the promise of better times after a decade of upheaval, self-doubt and economic ruin for our country. I plan to vote for Romney with the hope that he will be a good President because the certainty of having the worst President in history for four more years will be demoralizing and psychologically devastating for all Americans. We do not need four more years of this pedantic Kingfish.

Me He Dado Cuenta

ME HE DADO CUENTA

Hoy aqui mirando tus ojos, amor
Algo te llevas de mi
La devocion que te dio mi dolor,
Hoy quiero empezar a vivir
Y levantarme sin ningun temor

Y es que me he dado cuenta
Que te soy indiferente
Y la actitud hiriente
De tu engaño no me miente
Y es que me he dado cuenta
Que ya no me perteneces
Y otro en tu cama sacia hoy tu ilusion

Y es que me he dado cuenta
Que mi amor no te apetece
Y aunque yo te ame, te desesperas,
Y es que me he dado cuenta
Que dejas estos brazos
tan rotos y cansados
marchitos sin amor.

Hoy aquí, voy a decirte adios
Solo soñe con tu amor
Y me voy con el sabor de tu traicion
Tejiendo un arcoiris de dolor
Dejando un alheli en tu corazon

Y es que me he dado cuenta
Que te soy indiferente
Y la actitud hiriente
De tu engaño no me miente
Y es que me he dado cuenta
Que ya no me perteneces
Y otro en tu cama sacia hoy tu ilusion

Y es que me he dado cuenta
Que mi amor no te apetece
Y aunque yo te ame, te desesperas,
Y es que me he dado cuenta
Que dejas estos brazos
tan rotos y cansados
marchitos sin amor.

Jose R. Orellana (Waterbury, 3/8/2010)

Yes...Think of Me

In 1973, having recently arrived in New York City from Honduras, my siblings and I were struggling to assimilate to our new environment: learning English, getting to know and eventually love the New York Mets (who by the way shocked the Cincinnati Reds in the National League Playoffs and fell to the Oakland A's in the seventh game of the World Series) and new friends. That same year, a young Spanish singer captured the imagination of Latin America. Miguel Bosé, son of great and legendary Spanish matador Luis Miguel Dominguin and beautiful Italian actress Lucia Bosé was catching fire with young Latin American and young Europe. We were aware of him, seeing him on Mexican TV's top rated show "Siempre en Domingo" but one morning in 1979 while I was changing subway lines at Times Square I heard his music coming out of a generic subway record store. I asked the salesman who was the singer and he told me that indeed it was Miguel Bosé and his new album "Chicas". I pulled a metal chair and sat in a corner and listened to the entire album...did not go to school that day. "Si...Piensa en Mi" became my favorite song and it is still my favorite Bosé song. My brother René and I became fans and throughout life we have special songs that mark our mood in time. Miguel Bosé went on to have a great career, controversial, successful, failures and plagued by innuendo, just like many, if not all of us. I understand if you are not a fan of him, his music is somewhat contrived and soaring at the same time, poetic and rudimentary, too. But there is always a special place in my life and heart for him, especially "Si..Piensa en mi", his best song, his most under-appreciated song...a chimera of life that made me dream that day in a record store under the streets of New York.

Girando en el tiempo

Girando en el tiempo: Hay gente muy inmadura y malintencionada que andan sin vida fastidiando la vida al projimo; lo bueno es que hay cosas buenas tambien y puedes hacer amigos sinceros que resultan ser joyas en tu vida. Hoy uno de esos amigos me envio un mensaje que me dio mucho que pensar y trajo paz a mi dia y volvio a enfocarme a las cosas buenas de la vida y a valorar lo que tengo.

He aqui el mensaje de un amigo a quien admiro, desde Monterrey, Nuevo Leon:

"Por otro lado considero que mas vale solo que mal acompañado y que los problemas del corazón no existen como tal, el amor es solo la descripción coloquial de un estado psicológico que tarde que temprano desaparece"

Que palabras tan inmensas!!!


Acabas de descubrir que tu pareja tiene una relación con otra persona a tus espaldas. Sientes que todo te da vueltas, estás fuera de control y te preguntas:

¿Quién es esta persona en la que yo confiaba?

¿Cuántas mentiras más hubo antes que ésta?

La confianza desaparece y no sabemos cuándo nos miente y cuándo dice la verdad. Una relación de este tipo puede destruir el respeto por nosotros mismos y nuestra capacidad de confiar en nuestras propias percepciones, nuestro sano criterio y sentido común. Lo he sufrido, lo he vivido, lo he visto en la relacion de mis padres hasta que la destruyo, y si perdonas es para no sufrir pero nunca olvidas la traicion y nunca vuelves a confiar en esa persona, o sea perdonas la infidelidad pero nunca la deslealtad, me explico? La confianza se toma mucho tiempo en ganarse y se pierde en un segundo. Buenas noches a todos y que la noche nos devuelva la paz.