Type O Negative

santo niño

35 santo niño that year the boy turned 6 he was chosen by lottery to lead the annual procession as the child saint a week before the round bellied boy was kissed by his two youngest tios one after the next in the dark their tongues wet blind & eager burrowed & squished they stroked his cheeks tickled his inner thighs one called him sweetmeats the other called him hijo the younger one’s mouth tasted of cerveza the other ron & that night the boy didn’t sleep delirious with joy he waited for his papa to come surely papa’s lips tasted like sugar cane 36 the boy was fitted into a scratchy costume white & puffy gilded breast plate kyanite studded crown & scepter plump thighs in tights white white patent leather shoes a boy transformed into a heavenly bride the night before the boy’s mother swore to kill the boy’s father rip his throat out with her teeth when she found the boy whimpering under the bed his tender arm bruised rubber slippers tied to his feet with coarse gray twine the boy’s father explained i i warned him not to walk about barefoot on the cold marble floor i i warned him he wouldn’t listen wouldn’t as he ran out the door. 37 that year at dusk halfway through manila’s coolest month the boy led the town procession air thick dripping fat wax the whine & wail of penitents crush of lime leaves & white moor flowers behind him old withered twig men carried the saint mother high on their shoulders carved from wood black face black hands weeping always & the veiled widows clicking rosaries weeped with her next followed a glass coffin inside a waxy likeness of a saint with no name naked penis a small silver fish drying garland of wine-colored lesions face twisted in agony what remained of him stored & sealed 38 in a brass box shriveled tongue chip of bone a purple orb the sacraments. the boy walked past the beggars eyes glazed his scepter before him like a sword look at our chubby little prince they taunted a gnarled hag held out a mud crusted hand to the boy mockingly she yelled heal me your holiness oh please please perform a miracle! ...