Portrait of a Real Hijo de Puta
— for Michael
Not the obscenity,
but a real ten year old
son of a whore,
locked out of the apartment
so mamá could return
to the slavery
of her ancestors
who knew the master’s burglary
of their bodies at night,
mama who sleeps
in a pool of clear rum;
and the real hijo de puta poses
with the swim team photograph
at the community center,
bragging fists in the air,
grinning like a cheerleader
with hidden cigarette burns,
a circus strongman
who steals cheese and crackers
from the office
where the door is deliberately
left open.
by Martín Espada
from Alabanza, New and Selected Poems—
W.W. Norton, 2003