Of All Things that Pounce & Alter
I could foresee the earthquake rubble the bulging
gas and water lines the crisscrossing dropout sluices
the brambly abandoned lots the ancient rickety funiculars
the torturous unceasing subidas the shard-topped walls
the frayed and dangling alley wires the Brown-backed
and White-banded Mockingbirds the arrogant Andean Flickers
the arrogant eighteen month bed bugs the triumphal
colonizing ants the insomniac gypsy neighbors the vindictive
street vendors vindictive panhandlers the fishmongers
incensed by globalization the climate change graffiti punks
the escalera and botillería punks the presumptuous pernicious
fortunetellers the tightcorner trolley swings the taxi corner
whips the remnant Nacistas the newly emboldened Fascistas
but never the neighbor’s sluggish mutt her instant lateday ferocity
renting my shirt to the bone raking bloodying my hip prostrating me
in a crazed impromptu worship I dared not refuse
Residencial, Navidad (Chile)
Something there is in a raft of straw
and gnarled tubers
that draws a spent man to pull over
in a too late to search elsewhere pueblito
Something in a codex of lice
the dueña calls bedsheets
Something in the Jenga of abandoned safety razors
seatless toilets
marooned shoes
adjoining rooms clogged with field hands
and runaways
desperation in the six kinds of ugly
nefarious
seedy
you best sidestep as you piss stumble
down the hallway
after the schoperia closes
and cocks begin to reignite
their raison d’etre
Something about the last electron
sputtering from your bedside outlet
and sinks of used waters
Something about a full night’s stream of busses
hurtling up the road
of your drowsy brain
from Navidad to its immediate
neighbor
hijo de la gran puta
Foreign 