1.

Supervisor:

One. You’re late for duty.

Two. Your hat’s on wrong.

Three. Let’s get you straightened up.

Four… I forgot what pissed me off.

Rookie:

Ha! That’s a good one!

Hey boss, exactly how old are you?

Supervisor:

Old enough to remember Wilt playing for the Sixers.

Ya know what I’m sayin’?

Rookie:

Wilt who?

2.

He warbles off key

garbling choked nostalgia.

Colombia tierra querida, himno de fe y armonía
Cantemos, cantemos todos grito de paz y alegría
Vivemos, siempre vivemos a nuestra patria querida
Tu suelo es una oración y es un canto de la vida
Tu suelo es una oración y es un canto de la vida

No one joins in

neither meek Miguelito  nor his wife

Marimandón.

Cantando, cantando yo viviré
Colombia tierra querida
Cantando, cantando yo viviré
Colombia tierra querida (Ay)

The boy’s dog listens

with unwoofable devotion.

Colombia, te hiciste grande con el furor de tu gloria
La América toda canta la floración de tu historia
Vivemos, siempre vivemos a nuestra patria querida
Tu suelo es una oración y es un canto de la vida
Tu suelo es una oración y es un canto de la vida*

3.

How to say what has no words

is to cross a culvert with no water

just black scratches on concrete.

4.

I’m running toward the sun

with a stick in my hand

outsprinting chasing deer

reading  mute symbols:

a perfect semicircle

seven solar rays

three triangles

I strain for the sounds of running waters

and for a singer to explain it all.

5.

A tadpole walks into a bar,

and the bartender says “What’ll it be?”

The tadpole says “Water, please.”

and you, sir?

A Green Frog cocktail

garnished with my little friend.

_________

 

Lucho Bermúdez: “Colombia Tierra Querida”