“Colors” Never Fade

When my grandmother died, I learned not only had I lost my family’s matriarchbut I had never been in the family group. I discovered that I had been in a competitionwith my aunt and uncle, though the rulesof engagement remain a secret.We all wanted to be the most important,I gather, and my second-highest incomewas a...

I’m Glad I’m Not in Dixie

* sung to the tune of “(I Wish I Was in) Dixie’s Land” I’m glad I’m not in the land of cottonwhere subjunctive’s long forgotten.Stay away! Stay away!Stay away from Dixie, man. In Dixie Land, I’m not a kingI’m just a brown-skinned ugly thingStay away! Stay away!Stay away from Dixie, man. ‘Cause I’m not a...

Duty Bound to Hold It Down

"Harlem Dandy" by Miguel Covarrubias, 1927 I remember the day he leftand I became the man of the house.I was four and duty bound to hold things downwhile he joined the Army of my imagination.That he was simply leaving was lost on me.A father's leaving must augur some noble cause,and I was duty bound to hold...

Papa Don’t Take No Mess

his hands never leavethe filth of him crawls beneath her skinas feces stain the cuticlesof her thumbless handsshe gnaws around his feculencewith feline precisionknowsshe cannot remove himwithout defiling her tongue speak his nameshe will notbut he is there in the mirrorthe blue of his eyesthe sneering curl of his thin upper lipthe leering gaze papadon’t...

Cool Like Jazz.

It begins. Cool Like Jazz. Left, right, left, right. Feel the street and hold it tight. Left, right, left again. Eyes to front and show no pain. Right, left, right, left. Arms are loose and mind adrift. One man stands, his gun in hand. He’ll soon become one with his land. Another bends and squeezes...

Two

She was lovely, adorned in gold leaf, hand-painted, or perhaps handmade appliqué that matched her golden, Roman sandals. She wore a belt and sash of orange feathers and headpiece that would have been the envy of both Frida Kahlo and Carmen Miranda. She’d stopped to flash me a beatific smile, holding her rainbow flag at...

Inmigrante

I have my own theme music. Were it to play aloud, I’d be sued, most likely, by Led Zeppelin. Ah-ah-ah-AH… is how it begins and in my head, mi guitarra es un hacha real cutting through bullshit and misspent walls meant to keep me out but in actuality, only trapping the hatred within. I have...

A Song for Paterson

I watched the movie, Paterson, on a Sunday night. It was the story of Paterson, driver of the Paterson 23 bus in Paterson, New Jersey home of William Carlos Williams. It was not lost on me that the star of this quiet movie was named Driver, Adam, to be precise. Adam, the first person we...

Trattoria Italiana

table for one away from the kitchen back to the world not under the plants skylight's too bright too much limoncello the fat lady farted plus twenty percent 07/87 - 0 5/17

Redecorating

still in love. you'd think that after all these years of forgetting I'd have finally gotten it right. can't wait to forget you, to have that space in my memory match the hole in my heart. i've always hated dissymmetry.