Grenade at My Feet

I was given the gift of writing poetry when my mother passed away on June 27th 2004. As she had her last breath, she passed the gift on to me. My inspirations to start telling my life story through poetry began. My interest in poetry increased once I realized I obtained the same talent as my cousin Miguel Pinero. He was a great playwright, actor and co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Caf; he was the writer of the play Short Eyes and was nominated New York Critics Circle Award, Obie Award and Drama Desk Award. Through my poems, I tell my story of early child abuse, witnessing domestic violence towards my mother, depression leading to drug abuse and my struggle staying away from abusing drugs and alcohol. Also, I express my feelings towards my wifes life struggle, and supporting the LGBT Community. I wanted to put my story out there and show others that giving up and being defeated by obstacles is not the way to go. Keep fighting and overcome every bad situation being thrown.