Laviera's works:
Popular poems
Praying
papá dios está agallao, ya no puede soportar los “puerto ricans” están orando overtime no dejamos dormir a dios, está volviéndose loco con las comiquerías de nosotros, siempre chavándole la vida, papá dios está prendío, los “puerto ricans” están “overloading the circuits with numerous requests” te lo juro, créemelo, yo te lo advertí, lo escribí, papá dios está enfogonao, deme esto, consígame aquello, dele luz a mi vida, la com puta dora tiene corto circuito, las operadoras “complaining” a la supervisora, “qué diablo’ hablan esas viejas, rezan el rosario, murmurando como hormigas, their spanish is unintelligible, they pray too fast” dios-te-salve-maría-llena-eres-de-padre-nuestro- gloria-al-padre-y-a-las-galletitas-y-el-chocolate- caliente-amén, we don’t understand. the angels brought a lawsuit to the supreme court of heaven, protesting puerto rican prayers “we cannot pick up their signals, them puerto rican ladies, they pray non-stop, when they pray, they pray for everybody, their prayers are over- flowing their allotted time, and it’s working against you, papá dios, we cannot answer their prayers, they must be wondering, ‘how come papá dios does not reply?’ they are taking over the english channels, we cannot identify the items, judge strictly for yourself, look at this daily sample, just those pentecostals alone are driving the holy spirit insane, all they want is transformations, transformations, we’re not coming down on them puerto rican bodies, those crazy people are praying themselves into our jobs, all they want are crazy indian angels to come down, to assist some crazy spiritualist, and we don’t understand those native dialects, papá dios, please change the laws.” [p. 73] papá dios got up and said … “Bendito, they work so hard, bendito, they are so passive, i never get angry with my worthy faithful subjects, it is just that some crazy puerto rican poet is misinforming the people, i’m not enfogonao,” papá dios ordered a new computerized system to solve the inundation problem, but papá dios said to please tell them puerto ricans that he’ll listen to their every desire, if they will give papá dios un brakecito, concho, “y déjenme dormir. De vez en cuando duerman ustedes, por favor.” |
Nuyorican
yo peleo por ti, puerto rico, ¿sabes? yo me defiendo por tu nombre, ¿sabes? entro a tu isla, me siento extraño, ¿sabes? entro a buscar más y más, ¿sabes? pero tú con tus calumnias, me niegas tu sonrisa, me siento mal, agallao, yo soy tu hijo, de una migración, pecado forzado, me mandaste a nacer nativo en otras tierras, por qué, porque éramos pobres, ¿verdad? porque tu querías vaciarte de tu gente pobre, ahora regreso, con un corazón boricua, y tú, me desprecias, me miras mal, me atacas mi hablar, mientras comes mcdonalds en discotecas americanas, y no pude bailar la salsa en san juan, la que yo bailo en mis barrios llenos de todas tus costumbres, así que, si tú no me quieres, pues yo tengo un puerto rico sabrosísimo en qué buscar refugio en nueva york, y en muchos otros callejones que honran tu presencia, preservando todos tus valores, así que, por favor, no me hagas sufrir, ¿sabes? |
Commonwealth
no, not yet, no, not yet i will not proclaim myself, a total child of any land, i’m still in the commonwealth stage of my life, wondering what to decide, what to conclude, what to declare myself. i’m still in the commonwealth stage of my life, not knowing which ideology to select. i’m still in the commonwealth stage of my life, all of us caught in a web of suspension, light-years away from the indians’ peaceful enclaves. i’m still in the commonwealth stage of my life, observing the many integrated experiences we took everything and became everybody else. i’m still in the commonwealth stage of my life, but there’s not enough hatred in our hearts to kill each other or to draw blood for too long, ours is a mental search carved through a mainstream of options but yet, somewhere in the commonwealth, we all yearn to feel our strengths, to show our ultimate, to find common wealth among us, to close our eyes, to find the total silence, silencio, silence, to find ... not one thing that unites us, even in silence we are still in the commonwealth stage of our lives, so let’s touch hands, friends and foes, and stay together to hear each other’s sounds just for one moment, let’s stay tucked together, and maybe then, less options, maybe then, hope. |
My graduation speech
i think in spanish i write in english i want to go back to puerto rico, but i wonder if my kink could live in ponce, maygüez and carolina tengo las venas aculturdas escribo en spanglish abraham in español abraham in english tato in spanish “taro” in english tonto in both languages how are you? ¿cómo estás? i don’t know if i’m coming or si me fui ya si me dicen barranquitas, yo reply, “¿con qué se come eso?” si me dicen caviar, i digo, “a new pair of converse sneakers.” ahí supe que estory jodío ahí supe que estamos jodíos english or spanish spanish or english spanenglish now, dig this: hablo lo inglés matao hablo lo español matao no sé leer ninguno bien so it is, spanglish to matao what i digo ¡ay, virgen, yo no sé hablar! |