The Night Tito Trinidad KO’ed Ricardo Mayorga

I kissed my American girlfriend
& drank an American beer
on my cheap American chair.
How else will I get through to you?
I spit on your face, Puerto Rico.
I fuck around & when I come home,
you make me coffee.
You stink like fast-food meat.
Your stretchmarks are as red
as the red letters of K-Mart.
I’m telling you this because
I love you, you know. I love you
& distance makes difficult things
even more difficult, but necessary.
Because the footnotes of repression
have spun your history on its axis
& your flagposts are corroded
by the salt of compliance.
Our culture is a pair of Adidas
dangling from telephone lines
& a small child reaching up,
fists gripping air,
arms brief & contained
like the two o’s of colony.

Kevin A. González
The Night Tito Trinidad KO’ed Ricardo Mayorga was first published in The Progressive, May 2006.