ASS

when I saw him
approaching
down the jungle path
a large load
of sticks
lashed to his back
I thought
poor donkey
you were born a beast
of burden
but your eyes
are shaped for crying

BUS RIDE

I was in the back seat of the bus
jammed between a mother
and her children
and an older woman who
although sitting right next to it
never once
looked out the window.
in front of me there was a man
with a live rooster
clenched in his hands
and at each stop
some new solicitor
would board the bus
give his spiel
and then come around
to ask for money.
first was a young boy who sang
and had a nice voice
the next was a skinny, little man
who was pushing vitamins
that supposedly made you live forever.
after he sold quite a few bottles
he got off the bus
and nobody new came on
and I thought, finally, some peace
and quiet.
but as soon as I’d shut my eyes
I heard a voice in front of me ask,
‘hey, man? Man? You, gringo!’
I opened my eyes thinking, “oh, shit.
Now what?”
the man in front of me
with the rooster
he leaned his greasy dark face
into the aisle and said, “black whore,
for you?”
I didn’t understand him at first
so I said, “what?”
and he repeated, “black whore, for you?”
I shook my head and said, “no, thanks.”
turned to look out the window

to see what it was
the old woman was now looking at
or if she was just looking away

SLOW IT DOWN

there’s a strange feeling
you get
when you’re riding
along in a passenger bus
and you look out the window
and see that
you’re passing
an ambulance and
a fire truck
on their way to some accident
where injury or even death
might be the verdict.

it’s that feeling like
shit, what’s the rush?

GOOD TIME SERMON

another line
my father liked
to recite
when he entered
a room
full of people
who looked to be having
a good time
was, “someday,
you’ll find out the hard way,
that nobody gives a
damn.”
everyone in the room
would look at him
and then look at my mother
who would shrug
and after a little time
everything would go back
to normal
life would go on

TIGHTY WHITIES

on many of the buses
in Colombia
the headrests of the seats
have covers
that look exactly
like upside down pairs
of brand new underpants.
I am deadly serious
about this
but when I mentioned
to my friend
that I might steal one
as a souvenir
she gave me a dirty look
and the bus drove on

MADRES

when I met up with my buddy
in Bogota
I met the girl
who he had gone to visit
and then her friend
and then I met both the girls’
sisters
three of them
and then I met all
the sisters’ mothers
two of them
and suddenly I’d gone
from eating crap
and sleeping in a shitty hotel
to eating gourmet
home-cooked meals
and sleeping in a nice, clean bed
after a few days
I looked around and realized
that I had quickly acquired
seven new mothers
without even having
been born again

SCANDALOUS FUCKING SOCK PIRATES

it just occurred to me
twenty some years afterwards
that the companies
selling socks
when I was in middle school
were scandalous fucking pirates.
because, as a student
you learned very quickly
not to wear the socks
with the stripes whose colors were
brown, yellow and green
(shit, piss and puke, obviously)
and out of a pack of six pair
two pair would be colored that way.
even at a young age
you instinctively knew
those were the ones
to tuck way back in your drawer
or hide underneath
your bureau
or feed to the dog
so that your parents
would not force you to wear them
and you would be spared
the ridicule of being that kid
who was wearing shit, piss and puke
and because you couldn’t wear those socks
you’d go through four pair
in 2/3 the time
you’d go through six pair
sending your poor parents
out to buy socks
that much faster