Jin's Superette
for Erica
We were spectacularly sane, always singularly
moving toward Bird,
making ourselves relative to conifers. We were too numerous
for the room.
Some things were meant to be traversed:
we welcomed the opportunity to be hired as Writer-Strike scabs,
asked are house-cats permitted in the library
of celestial sandwiches?
which agitated the heart. We required lavishly produced grocery
lists and figured empathy
and turkey breast, bought together in a deal, were missing
from our murder mysteries.
We take the couch with serenity until it silences us
with council:
departure is not an act of cruelty, but a way to be singularly kind,
always relevant to others.
The Symbolism Practice Test
We don’t mean to be crass, Little Bird, except we thought we made it: windowsills
disintegrate into pollen; every third day, our parkas deflate because we loiter
after naming. On the fourth, terrestrial endeavors seem untoward after eating light
salad from the mini-fridge with a reduced heart.
Dear Administrator, we hadn’t messaged in a while. We wanted to see how the folks
lived up here, honoring the branch.
Being there seemed of substantial vitality. Outside, red pigeons sigh with
incidental ennui, which appeases us after feeding, with a draping of fog on the elms
at the end of the street.
biography
RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He is the translator of Dinapiera Di Donato’s Collateral
(Akashic Books/National Poetry Series) and the recipient of fellowships in poetry from the New York Foundation for the Arts and Queer Arts Mentorship. He is managing director at the 92Y Unterberg Poetry Center.