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SOME REFLECTIONS BEGINNING WITH THE DISPROPORTIONATE LENGTH OF MY FEET / Ricardo Castillo translated by Robert L. Jones I come from a family in which everyone has big feet. Mine measure thirty centimeters and my oldest brother's thirty-two. My whole family measures a kilometer. My grandfather was cow-eyed. What's more, had he been a cow, milk would still be selling at the old prices. Such was the noble and simple nature of my grandfather. In my family we take things calmly: "Papa and Mama just died," "My socks have holes in them," "I just swallowed a fly," "Everything's gotten so expensive," "We'll all croak soon enough." I think it'd be better we were less tame, for once making absolute fools of ourselves. 32 · The Missouri Review ODE TO THE URGE / Richard Castillo translated by Robert Jones Urination is the major accomplishment of engineering, at least insofar as drainage is concerned. Furthermore, to urinate is a pleasure. What's there to say? One takes a leak saluting love and friends, one spills himself long into the throat of the world to remind himself we're warm inside, and to stay tuned up. All this is important now that the world's emitting disaster signals, intoxicated hiccups. Because it's necessary, for pure love of life, to urinate on the silver service, on the seats of sports cars, in swimming pools with underwater lights worth easily 15 or 16 times more than their owners. To urinate until our throats ache, right to the last drops of blood. To urinate on those who see life as a waltz, to scream at them, Long live the Cumbia, Señores, Everybody up to shake his ass, until we shake off this mystery we are and the fucked-up love of suffering it. And long live the Jarabe Zapateado too, because reality is in the back and to the right, where one doesn't go in a tux. (Nobody's yet gotten rid of TB by beating his chest.) Tm pissing down from the manger of life: I just want to be the greatest pisser in history, Oh Momma, for the love of God, the greatest pisser in history. The Missouri Review · 33 ...

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