Ray DeJesús
NY Series
for Títi, Nino, Dad
(Sequence 1)
un campesino con poco scratching pennies en una batita watching him
wielding un machete the jíbaro in them the children the babies a trio of
playfulness and work rolling about in the tobacco fields keeping busy los
cigarillos in his pocket one dangling from betwixt his two lips tending to
las cañas de azúcar las gallinas y los pollos the fights not far behind una
tormenta con fuerza no books no tv some candles o velas in the
cupboard tilling the dirt the soil una esclava a slave life un vuelo tan lejo
a ny toiling with sweat nothing but sonrisas lightning about to strike not
much to chuckle about the nearest colmado about a 1/2 mile away
preparation a plane sits waiting c. 1957 shoe shine ready
(Sequence 2)
aglow dawdling door
tenuous chic everything
bound rocks pearl
dropping thaw bowling
so black defined decades
to yr luck shuffling
motors starch many
and derby reprieve above
stands of this
Hegelian trench draw
dime grip penultimate
echoing loud of the
fruit off blaring
intrusive hat truncated
Canal shadow noir amplified
to on ire sundry
in couch collar engines
alley the mother jet
locked bolted St
the detective
coat a later
untoward Frostian
all decisions
the safe repetitive
the lotharios' elegies
tightened up
(Sequence 3)
Today, the landlady
pharmacy paperbacks
inevitable guitar solo
a bridge to nowhere
sciatic indulgences, class warfare
factor in wage: worker
millionaires v. billionaires v.
laborer
surplus jobless
it’s a rosy day
rags to riches
oft unmentionables
factor in wages: spendthrift: luxury: survival
choose eats
a tawdry languishing
a threadbare language
bleary eyed and weary
rarely a peachy keen day
Ray DeJesús' work has appeared in 1913, Padiuema, Cul-De-Dac of Blood, and issue 9 of the tiny (2020). He was born and raised and Brooklyn, NY.