Poem

Sordid Cabana Boy

Not knowing the difference between men
and women has confused my life.

As a child the stars and moon made vulgar
motions at the earth causing quakes and

eruptions. The crosswalks of my city
were drawbridges; pavement like moats.

I shivered when the sun glared in July
and perspired in the blizzards of my mind.

The mailman kept secrets from me; garbage
men kept my nails, breath and soul.

The sinews and tendons of my appendages
pulsed to the pull of the moon and each womb.

My hair grew from my head and armpits
in braids, bows supplied by a fairy godparent.

I pledged allegiance to no country; I swore
allegiance and vehemence to you. Rain

seeped into my skin, skin flowers blooming
in the sun, and I wept from the fragrance.

I spat on paper money and fed coins to pigeons.
I lived on books, eating each page by page.

Later, my skull became as pliable as a thin shell
of aluminum; my heart pounding hard as a diamond.

Now, I dream the same dream all of the time:
I am a child and contract scarlet and rheumatic fever

and layer upon layer of skin sloughs away
and I lose my identity completely.

As an adult all of my writing and poetry
becomes untranslatable from a new language

that I know but like rain do not understand
the difference or the perception of men and women.