Exhaustion

Workdays end with pinche mosquitoes. A little blood is all they ask for And sometimes I’ll let them drink.

Chupen, cabrones, chupen. What does blood laced with Arizona Green Tea taste like?

Sometimes my blood is thick. I imagine it sloshing through my capillaries And arteries, sin agua.

The Mosquitoes flock to me, An Oasis amongst the sawdust deserts of suburbia. My blood ferments with a days work Building.

Borracho, we sing: volver, volver (to return, to return) Mis hijos y yoCielitos Lindos. On my daughter’s birthday; on my Anniversary day, The days I look south and listen To the echoes of my hammer ricocheting From the walls of white-washed homes.

Chupen, cabrones, chupen. Llorar, Llorar (to cry, to cry) Take this wine and drink it, cielitos My blood, my blood.

They hum for me at dusk, My Choir of angels My makers of welts.

Mosquitoes love me For my insides. My only friends in this tierra, America.