Exit, with the Body

Vandal Poem of the Day: February 11, 2021

 by Ricardo Alberto Maldonado

And out of remorse, I would pay
my debt with medicine—

I’m a Latinist, empirically, with my butane
flame. I would

1. Keep out of all cities
2. Raid the costume shop marvelously for Clarence’s head
3. Speak seditiously in society

—yet I would pull verdicts and revelation from Life.
And on the Internet

I browse for an answer to the coarseness
of the age, the erotics of the West I now give as émigré.

When in doubt, I go to the dictionary.
I put the utensils in the sink.

The fish dressed in newspaper burn in my reply—
two quietly listening minds hush, feeling, constantly, nostalgia
for the world.
from The Life AssignmentFind more by Ricardo Alberto Maldonado at the library
Copyright © 2020 Ricardo Alberto Maldonado

Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Four Way Books.

Published in Poems Ricardo Alberto Maldonado

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