FRIDAY NIGHT


Literary awards
Granted by the State
I liked the wine
The potatoes and caviar
Where worth the taste
The governor seems
To be a smiley guy

I still remember
Martin’s words
You should enter the contest
I am sure you would win
I thought about it
And found myself translating
Like a crazy my
English poems into Spanish

It was madness
So I stopped
The conversion project
Such operations
Should not be done in haste

So I concentrated on the event
On the faces of the winners
As their names were pronounced
On the PA
On how the blue governor
Smiled on them

A high point
A winner with a mini—skirt
She walked up
On the podium
Blue glances at her face
But her underwear
Was black

Then time came to go
Read at the tavern
So we drove in a convoy
It was a starless night

When I was at the door
Chatting with a
California photographer
A government sedan
Double parked next to us
2 fellows came out
The driver looked scared
And the passenger
Dressed in black
His face like that of a car
Wanted to be friendly
He said hello and smiled
Pat me on my arm
And walked in

And it turns out
It was his day view
He read a couple of poems
Not bad for a bureaucrat
He read love poems
And I wonder if those poems
Were really his
Or was he just following
The script