Tuesday/m a r t e s/4 Quetzal/1519 hrs
Steven Alvarez
Battery Park.
Instructed by Quetzalcoatl to write a lyric abt the sóbbüey on 125th / red line heading south / still on the street / I tried to tap a table to find a rhythm / one two onetwothree / & I think I wrote something abt two dogs then a cigarette burning / but cdn’t find a line that went beyond mediocre / I desired mostly to use sd for sd / I told Quetzalcoatl that I planned on using names of places to sing my praises of the street I know / cdn’t think of any aside from Pathmark & McDonald’s / ¡Sweet 125th!she recommended some puns / this time I dreamed a bit in eSpenglish
as I told her that my mother wd pinch my cheeks & sd que so bueno / or que so cute / or que so chulo?
stopped on sidewalk near where the folks sell cans & plastics for cash / corner of 124th & Lex passing them through machines’ mouths from bags they’ve gathered the goods mostly from trash bins / cans & plastics from mouth to bowels / expelled crushed in bags by men who load the goods into trucks’ holes / He called me sir & sd do you have a minute of course I have a minute because I have to get to work.
Steven Alvarez is the author of The Pocho Codex and The Xicano Genome, both published by Editorial Paroxismo. His chapboook Un/Documented, Kentucky was awarded the 2015 Rusty Toque Poetry prize. He is Assistant Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky. Read more of his work at http://www.stevenpaulalvarez.com or follow him on Twitter @chastitellez and Instagram @stevenpaulalvarez.