16 Febrero: Pajaritos, run!
Days & Days
1 February The men who are wolves gentle, joyful men, are our leaders, now they call, Lobos todos somos & hand the children chalk. They have ukuleles, a queen like Patti LuPone. Here is what you clap, listen for her drum. Café con PAN, café con PAN. Crocheted leg veins, a gourd for the tail, a rug for the head. The men put on their wolf skirts the braces at their backs, hoist the puppets of the wolves, the hart, the strips, the wolves. Their fine faces striped now. Parjaritos, run! Our birds on bamboo poles. Franny holds on. We run for the hart, the trumpet, & trombone. The hart held high in ribbons, high in air. Iker is a bird & Nico is a bird. Francisco is a bird & Fina is a bird & lobos somos todos, & all our birds are curled. . 9 February The donkeys eat orange peels & chips Virgen de los Dolores, flooded by the president, who flooded this whole town. We row out to it & see how the stone walls stand. Margaritas carved in rows. Roses, shells. Later I hear Bon Jovi, R.E.M., Whitney Houston & feel such nostalgia/grief for my country, the home of Rock & Roll. . 10 February Franny knows about old hands. She held the old blue hand of Mercy’s great grandma on BINGO days, flower days, dying days. They are like MaMaw’s, she says, but “rufflier.” . 16 February The test balloon is trans people. Then migrants. ICE wearing hoods. ICE wearing tactical gear. ICE stealing some child’s father from her, a terror, to disappear. All these nice people I know, people who like the story of Bonhoeffer, and books on character, virtue and don’t have a dissenting word to say now. It’s not nice when I mention Trump is an unrepentant serial rapist, that’s what they’ve let me know. I counter that rape is not nice? Leaving disabled people without services is not nice? Firing park rangers is also, like, not nice? They teach kids, build trails, keep treasures. That is nice! Was nice! I can’t get down with SpaceX for overlord, but anarchy could be okay if we were all radiant as day. When the profiteers close the refugee clinic where my sister works will that be nice? The V.A. crisis hotline? The free bags of rice? Was it more bummer or nice when the crowd shouted “hang Mike Pence” and his boss joined in? We’re getting to the part of the story when we learn who or what we adore / cower before / where our treasure is stored.
Pretty column with pretty colors, Santiago de Querétaro.