They
what do we eat when a name dies?
yesterday your mother stopped by, but she didn't
recognize me as your friend's friend, the previous one.
what is that about, having a dead friend
in the wallet with a picture of a kidnapped kid?
have you seen my son?
he is short and collects photos of swings.
my short hair isn't professional;
your long hair doesn't prepare you.
between the two of us, we figure out how
to fake we are marionettes, not people.
it's difficult to count the days
since the last time we went out.
what is that about, going out
and not having to explain
you aren't that her
or that thing?
in this, our language,1
there exists no plural that doesn't deny me.
1 our language is spanish. ours, but never quite mine.
Copyright Credit: Raquel Salas Rivera, "They" from X/ex/exis. Copyright © 2020 by Raquel Salas Rivera. Reprinted by permission of University of Arizona Press.
Source: X-Ex-Exis (University of Arizona Press)