Carlos Hiraldo
St. Nicholas
I
wouldn’t raise a hand
to turn back
the clock’s hand.
I
wouldn’t get up
and walk away
from this moment,
lying here in bed,
sleepless
with thoughts of the years past
and the fear
of more like that
to come.
Dominicans love
lukewarm Spring or Fall nights
in Washington Heights,
with loud Merengue
blaring from open windows.
The guira, like bottle-cap
scratching on concrete,
a cheese grinder and a pick,
the practical, musical
instruments of slaves.
The whites can ignore
the noise, the music,
the sirens running
here to there
with no seeming purpose
but to wail.
The whites can pretend
to sleep,
knowing they’re just passing by
for education
at Columbia medical school
or at temporary poverty.
I
lie here,
closing and opening my eyes,
as the noise
wanes and starts up,
opening and closing my eyes,
exchanging one darkness
for another,
thinking of my childhood here,
and in Santo Domingo,
my college years in Boston
and Long Island,
my love turn to hate
turn to regret.
And I
do not move,
knowing that would mean
exchanging one darkness
for another.
You can take
the Dominican out of Washington Heights,
but the brown-American
will always be asked
his place of birth.
Planet Earth is a cesspool.
Page(s) 118-119
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