I WANT TO SING

By Paul LaTorre a.k.a Paul con Queso

Because the white picket fence of my teeth
jagged as it be
often causes me to stumble
over this machete blade
of a tongue
              Say lengua           Say slipped rubber           Say accident of nature

The mistake made of me
at conception
miraculous as that be
            still people done been trying to kill me
               Since long before I was born
                        Battle worn      War torn     Isla
Inlet of a chancleta tongue
from the hoof of Sicilian boot
to the point of this toe
                  from Porto, Portugal     to     Aguadilla, Puerto Rico

Sonrisa to puesta
                     May sol rise over this bloodline      bloodletting

Survival strategies amongst the "melancholy of racial assimilation”
Thrown by wayside
when patriarch razed
then matriarchs came
& raised us up strong
                                came     &     went

taking to shades lighter than paper bag

Taking white flight
from gated wingspan of an Albatross
White picketing August Wilson Fences & Pilfered tongues
called "patterns of love In People of Diaspora”
         There’s no such thing
                                     as half a love     inside of us
When the anthem
pulsing within your blood says-
                    "If you don’t believe I'm inside you– You’re wrong"
So I told all my lost ancestor’s teeth
which became my spine calcified & rigid
interlocked like chain linked fingers
becoming flung open passages

                                     That I want to sing

Not recalcitrant          Nor reluctant anymore
      As my throat knows      the tempo
                                       the chords of each      canto's chorus