Raggedy Ass Man
(Original Spanish is below)
It’s a shame girl
After all that studying
All those degrees
Who would think
That you daughter
Dearie
That you would
Let yourself fall
Get into it
With such an example
That you would drag
Yourself through the mud
And bring us such disgrace
Cause us such problems
Who’d think that you’d go looking
For such precious problems
With such a maleducaó
And so homely too
Not even his mother who bore him
Can stomach him
And why?
Do you owe me such
Vengeance?
What did I do?
Ay dios mio, my girl
Why did you go looking
In that safacón
For that raggedy ass man
Trapo de Hombre
Parece mentira mija
Después de todo esa
Educación
Quien pensaba
Que tu hija mía
Te iba meter
Con tal mal ejemplo
Te iba arrastrar
En el fango
Te iba a ir
Buscando problema
Con tal malcriao
Y tan feo también
No tal carácteracho
Que ni la mai
Que lo parió
Lo soporta
Ay dios mío nena
Y porque fue eso
Buscando venganza
Y que yo te hice ah
Porque fuiste a sacar de
Algún safacón
Ese trapo de hombre
Queen
Walking down the block straight
Into our new respectable nabe
Came the riotous Titi Sara
Recently arrived from Puerto Rico
But now of the South Bronx and super
My family had just made it into
The whitedom of Flatbush
I’d learned to read and write
English better than the natives
I even used the word quotidian once still in college
We—my sister and I—had gotten rid of that telltale
accent and we were light at
least
My parents were another story
Struggling with the lingo
My brother couldn’t talk but told on us
In his special way given his off kilter
repetitive gestures and jabberings
Still we’d made it to Flatbush but now
here comes my voluptuary aunt queen of cheap cacophony
The jangle of bracelets her spikes clicketing and
clacketing on cement shiny tight ass
skirt her spilling out bosom blouse electric orange
She was too big to be contained by any one normal eye
Following close behind 5 of her 8 children
in size place all chirping away in Spanish
Loud most of them a little darker than us
You couldn’t deny who they were
Poor and Puerto Rican
In Sara’s arms a crying baby
Tugging at her hair now a brass crayon yellow
On her mouth the deep magenta
lipstick she loved matched the 2 dots of rouge on her cheeks
The loudness the loudness, the loudnesses
The Spanish, Spanish, the Spanish
Cutting through the Flatbush, the Flatbush,
my Flatbush
Titi Sara my gorgeous mess of an aunt
came strolling down Church Avenue but
before she spotted me I hid in a doorway
I hid I hid though I couldn’t wait to hug and
kiss her have her hold me to smell her
Evening in Paris Perfume breathe in the love
and hear her stories of the ago her raw jokes
her laughter and ours but only where it was safe
Behind doors inside our house away from los
blanquitos (the neighbors) where they couldn’t see
What They Did Yesterday
Lena fell so needed 2 stitches above her left eye and also she broke her left wrist but didn’t need casting
I lay on the futon the entire day without feeling anything without stretching or swelling or thinning without remorse
Marc went shopping for groceries for the week but couldn’t find any siracha, gandules, yautia or mofongo … wrong neighborhood
Karen worked on her dissertation for hours that had been due 2 weeks ago and 17 days
Joe didn’t leave the nursing home for 3 days and got cozy with his new roommate
Stella called Stanley begging him to return then she yelled out his name repeatedly gruffly and lustily
Mary had her last name changed back to her maiden name when her ex warned her not to soil his name or the children
Christian learned 2 new facts that he could use against Bob and one piece of misinformation about his wife that might work anyway
Dick went out and bought a dictionary on sale but the A’s were missing and some of the Z’s
The twins got into a down and dirty brawl and one lost an eye but people couldn’t figure out which one
Rosemarie Henyea who had osteopinya decided to quit teaching wearing miniskirts watching Minions and peeling onions
Suzie Q. looked into adopting new kids because the other ones were done underdone cooked or overdone
John Paul paused outside the church and crossed himself even though he wasn’t high Catholic or even low Anglican
Mark Anthony decided to marry his fourth 19 year old girlfriend in a row and have his eighth kid
Tillie was thrilled to find out she was an aunt again though she had no siblings
Marilyn decided to leave the country but couldn’t decide which one
Teresa contemplated murdering her mother in law but thought she’d think about the details in the morning like Scarlet, when her head was clearer
Lydia Cortés is the author of two poetry collections, Lust for Lust and Whose Place. She is the recipient of fellowships from The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and from The MacDowell Colony. Search Live Mag! for more poems by Lydia.