literature

Paterson

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astridiana's avatar
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Literature Text

I am a product of America's public education
and cannot order rice and beans from the corner
restaurant, fearing offense with hesitation, crooked trilling.
Yellow rice and beans. No meat. No carne, por favor. Arroz, si. Yo no hablo espanol bueno. I'm sorry my words fail.
I am literature with a blank page. I eat in silence.
I understand, comprehend, yes. Cannot speak. Silencio.

The Falls spray me as I pass over the footbridge, finding snowfall and river spit inconsequential, indiscriminate, arbitrary. New York's skyline is visible from top of mountain, the only nature remaining. Little Peru ignored by Washington. A prison adjacent to a playground,
where kickballs skim over a razor wire fence. Immediate transition from one world
to the next.
Would a senator send his own daughter to the jail's annex? What if he had not enough words to dissent?
This is one segment of the America A-Z collection.
© 2004 - 2024 astridiana
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TheObviousChild's avatar
Paterson NJ? Your town spawned two of the greatest poets of the 20th century -- William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg!