Today’s read: Puerto Rican Obituary by Pedro Pietri – Monthly Review Press – 1973
Favorite lines:
and once again
— Pedro Pietri
the mailbox was empty
and his arms were aching
and his nerves were doing weird things
the worst enemy he had
and once again he asked
And this poem took me a place I did not expect to go. It brought me right to the heart of Trump’s America as they check for a stimulus check that is either not there or not enough. Because, in Trump’s America, that is where you live flat broke or thinking you are flat broke. And when you live between extremes you know nothing else. You may know the news or some news or the right news but even that is shaky lately. Numbers are not adding up. Trump’s America is doing fine and then it’s not. This used to be ok. Trump’s America has always been reality TV but now even that is not enough. Numbers don’t match the story of Trump’s America. Now you need to make Trump’s America true again. You hear that Clorox can fix this. Trump’s America has always wanted to be pure, clean, sterile. Now is Trump’s America’s chance to stop the spread harmful bacteria. Trump’s America’s wants to deliverance of a brighter and longer-lasting whites future. Trump’s America wants medicine and even if the numbers, the TV, the stimulus, do not add up that will not stop Trump’s America from that injection, the pure disinfectant, that can deliver the light (a powerful concept). The promise of a true cleaning.
There is at least some truth here. A limpieza is necessary. A sprinkle of Agua Florida, the deep balm of VapoRub, the fog of salvia, the divinations of Walter Mercado. A good talking from that auntie that tells all your business complete with a deep side eye when you interrupt. The waves hitting MSG when Manu Dibango taught the Fania All Stars bout the mama sa mama so mamakosa, mama say mama so mamakosa, hay soul makosa, and we all where in the throat of sax and bone of vibraphone. When you ready for that act of change then you can begin to let the medicine do the work.