Sal Salasin in Guadalajara, february 2008. Photo by Jim Stapleton

Sal Salasin passed away on thursday. i knew him as founding editor of RealPoetik &, when he went to central america to study spanish, as author of a long line of quite amazing correo electronicos

here is the poem i sent to him via his daughter

(correo electronico)
for sal salasin

today the electronic
postman brought me
news no one wants
to hear. so i washed
out my ear with a
small explosive followed
by the seven deadly
sins. & later seven
drunken pirates speaking
damn near perfect
spanish stagger in
to the room surprisingly
switching to swedish
as they try to say some
thing along the
line of when
death knocks i will
open neither door
nor window but
bring out the chess
board & start practicing
like mad