unas poemas de aca
"YO SOY EL CHINGON"
i can make you
a bracelet, anklet, or longer thinglet
all with your (his/her) name on it
in 15 minutes, because
YO SOY EL CHINGON
it says so on the windshield of my ride
and if you thought NO FEAR was macho
well, I AM THE SHIT
makes NO FEAR look like
half-assed twelve year old braggadocio
and DIOS ES AMOR
the sissy efforts of a marin county fortysomething
on his way home from sunday morning dance meditation
************
"trash on the road - a guatemalan best practice"
there´s some kind of balance
between wanting to fit in, to not be a spectacle -
and being myself
if i try to be a guatemalan
i wouldn´t be writing right now - they wouldn´t
there´s a fine mist settling over the square this morning
a subversive subliminal pesticide of the mind
a cerebricide they don´t know about
but i see it and i think it might explain
their laissez faire attitude towards throwing trash
out the window of a moving (or parked) bus
which i may adapt to
adopt as my own best practice
because when i disembark
trash occupying a valuable hand
there ain´t a basurero in sight
next time, timidly, i´ll yank the window open
and with eyes in the back of my head daintily drop it out the window
awaiting a scolding that´s sure not to come
and the time after that,
maybe i´ll feel like a real guatemalan
when i chuck that chicken bone out the goddamn window
pound the rest of my tiki
and send it to meet it´s maker.
***********
"an american samurai"
they, especially the little ones
all stare at me when i pass
right in the eyeballs even.
i try to exude friendliness
to let them know i mean them no harm
and they don´t have to take me to their leader
yet.
maybe i could walk the streets
loaded to the gills with ki,
stepping, left hamni to right, and right to left,
prepared to blend. blending in fact
with the curiosity
the wonder
the bewilderment
accepting these with a mild tenkan
but ready to irimi
any oncoming machete or pocketslasher.
i´d bust a kotegaeshi or nikkyo
gently remove the weapon from their hand
and proceed to the next mountain town,
an american samurai en guatemala