Monday, April 23, 2012

The Worst Year

You should have been poor, black and stupid
You should have been the monkey we saw on TV,
            dancing full of feathers in a crowded avenue.
You shouldn’t understand what we said, but you did.
            You did.

I don’t really know what we were expecting.
A maid, a nanny? A piano teacher, maybe?
You were no such thing. You couldn’t do anything.
            Cook, wash, clean, fix, teach.
You had maids and gardeners in that damned rainforest
            from where you came. You had never been in
            the forest.

You shouldn’t have been light brown and rich.
You should have been the monkey we saw on TV.
            Not this smart ape, humiliating our Aryan child,
            making us look stupid, simpletons.
  
On a day of exceptional compliance we told you that
Arbeit macht frei. It was a compliment, 
            you see?

You never complied after that. You still lived there,
            in the attic, above our heads
but only physically.

You should have been poor, black and stupid
You should have been the monkey we saw on TV
a maid, a nanny, a cook.
A simpleton. A slave.

1 comment:

  1. É impressionante como a sua prosa o seu verso conseguem ser tão diferentes um do outro. São duas vozes completamente distintas e, como você me disse uma vez que escrever em verso nunca tinha sido uma coisa comum, como ocorre com a prosa, acho que no final das contas a curva de aprendizado lhe faz bem a cada novo texto (ela gosta de você). Gosto de como é organizado e fluido de ler. Gosto principalmente da escolha de certas palavras, e como elas soam juntas umas das outras, como "a maid, a nanny, a cook".

    ReplyDelete