Textos
Perfect Eggs (2019)
I. Parachute
It’s a good thing I buy grandma’s tummy tucking underwear at the discount delicates section at Walmart because they stretch. My man don’t like them because he says they look like a big ass parachute and then he laughs. He can laugh all he wants cause when he’s done, I know he’ll take them off and toss them across the room before he comes back home all the way inside of me. I’m telling you, these underwear. They really dangle on this side of cheap and if you get them in black, they look like real expensive lingerie and give you this 50’s starlet kind of silhouette and they stretch. did I mention they stretch? And do they stretch, girl, to the sun! I tell you they’re only missing pockets to be perfect and - it’s a good thing all my clothes stretch-
It’s a good thing all my clothes stretch because I eat.
Boy do I eat.
I’m eating for two.
I’m eating for two people that I am, that are me, that have my face that’s not mine only for I share it with a girl who looks just like me.
I share my face.
It’s a simple arrangement. Like a condo on the beach. This girl I share my face with lives my life when I’m out of town, and when I come back, she’s left the place exactly as it was, it just looks a little lived in but it’s nothing to fuss much about, just a matter of opening up a window and airing it out and after a while I forget she’s even been here in the first place.
I forget she’s even been here in the first place. I forget she’s even big here in the first place- I forget she’s even -big. I forget she’s big this girl I share my face with. She’s big and has a thing that I want but forfeited a while ago and she has my face as well.
Now I’ve never been a competitive person. They say to play you have to have the spirit and I do, have a spirit I mean, I’m mean spirited enough it’s just not the competitive one because when It comes to games, I’d just rather let my opponent win than put some backbone into it. Some backbone. Some backbone I have some -back when it started, I had this huge urgency to make pasta every day. It’s a very simple recipe, really, we’ve known it forever and the ingredients are easy to find at any convenience store so we found them. We found them every day for like,
-what? Two weeks?
-Like three weeks, yeah.
-And it fed us for a very low price.
It’s not that we have no money it’s just that we party hard, and tequila takes a toll on a girl’s finances.
-we party hard, don´t we?
-oh, we party hard
II. The Juice of Five Lemons.
We party so hard it’s almost a month later when I realize this girl is wearing my face. She’s wearing it like it fits just perfect and she’s getting big. She’s getting big and she’s hungry all the time. I try telling her to stop- to just stop this rampage of eating and repeating and leave me be. Her answer is cut short by wet sounds of sucking and swallowing. I feel opaque next to the loud brightness of her newfound roundness and it’s like going to a party where someone else is wearing your same dress- you just gotta leave. So I leave. I leave her be, instead. It’s like the condo thing I explained to ya’ll earlier, recall? I just gotta leave and she’ll take over. She will live inside my face and she’ll decide.
I have this friend that’s kind of street smart and I was telling her how I was down because I had a date with my man but felt my monthly was coming straight away. I tell her we ain’t had no sex in what feels like forever and you know how men are. Once they don’t wanna take you no more it sure means something, catch my mean? So, she the tells me not to sweat it then she says:
-look a here this is what you’re gonna do: you’re gonna squeeze the juice of five lemons and it should give you about half a glass of lemon juice. You’re not gonna put no water nor sugar to it nor nothin’, and you gotta drink it straight up like a shot. That should make your period late for about three days, tops.
And hell, I’ll be the first one to admit it sounds a little bit sketchy, but I’m desperate as a mouse in a trap, so I do it like she said, straight up like a shot-
and so at first, I think it’s that that did it, what did me in.
but it wasn’t.
III. Old Dog
My man, he ain’t a looker, alright. He has a face so funny like a dog that’s seen too much and lived too hard throughout his doggy life. He has them puppy eyes, though. Them puppy brown eyes and salt and pepper curls. First time I saw him, I thought this man’s for me. Sure as the sky is blue, this man’s for me, and nothing in the world coulda stopped me. I was a girl on a mission, if you catch my mean. My mom she says I’ve got a pair of grabby hands and that I grab, grab, grab whatever I want paying no mind to any consequence. I used to steal at Walmart before I grew up some and started buying my black parachutes he says he doesn’t like. I’m not gonna stop buying the underwear I like because sometimes I feel like I’ve given up too much for his puppy brown eyes, that I stole, admittedly, but enough is enough, I think, until he says, my man:
-baby, you sure are pretty.
And I’d give it all up again, alright.
He likes this long floral sundress I have so I wear it all the time.
-so pretty and honest with your big tits hanging out like that – he says, and I wonder what’s so honest about a pair of tits hanging out, but I sure like the sound of it. I like the sound of all my old dog has to say. He’s smart, my man. Book smart and street smart, dresses smart, too. Real smart.
-baby you’re so pretty with your tits hanging out like that!
Oh, how he makes me laugh!
He’s my man. We can shoot up tequila and sing all night long and when it’s morning he’ll crack up two eggs into a pan and toast two slices while he does this funny little dance. He’ll drive me home with the windows rolled down listening to whatever album he’s currently obsessed with, kiss me goodbye and go to work. He’s always working, my old dog, my man, and then I go to school and think about him all day long until he calls me up again Wednesday night.
IV. Wednesday Girl
At first, he only called me up on Wednesdays. It seemed to me it was a fine arrangement, what with him working all day and me with school, so I went along with it. A little time went by and he was my standing Wednesday appointment. We never missed one.
Swear to god I started getting wet first thing on Tuesday, and when Wednesday finally came, I spent all my evening getting ready to see him exactly at 8. I would make no other plans never; all my friends already knew not to come lookin’ for me on a Wednesday night no more. I’d get real dolled up for him, perfume and all, shaved the ittiest most hidden corners of myself just in case, did my hair real pretty, and on the cab to his place I’d get this jittery feeling like I was about to buzz out of my skin or throw up or somethin’, but then I’d ring the bell and he’d open up the door and kissed me long and deep every time, pulled me closer by the loops of my denim skirt and when we parted a little for air I’d see his face all stained red with my lipstick and his puppy eyes blown real wide, and well, then the feeling lowered. Grab, grab, grab, went his hands.
It was real nice, at first. I always remember it like that because after a while I think we settled into something a little less red. A little less hot. Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t trade lying in my old dog’s arms while watching some flick on a Wednesday night for the world but I’m young. Or maybe I’m just greedy. I remember at first he just couldn’t get enough of me, bumps and all, then it just -stopped. That’s why I drank the lemon juice. That’s why I agreed.
V. Condo on the beach
this girl who’s wearing my face is
this girl who’s wearing my face is who’s wearing my face is
this girl who’s wearing my face is this girl who’s wearing my face is who’s wearing my face is
this girl who’s wearing my face is
this girl who’s wearing my face is this girl who’s wearing my face is
this girl who’s wearing my face is who’s wearing my face is
who’s wearing my face is this girl who’s wearing my face is
this who who’s wearing my face is
who’s this girl who’s wearing my face?
6.Sur la table
The girl who wears my face at times dies real dead the day we climb into the metal table and spread our legs beneath the harsh light of what looks like a white sun. she dies read dead or I do. I’m confused because sometimes I’ll be talking to someone or saying something and my mind will travel to the body of the person nearest to me and I will see myself, through their eyes, and I don´t look like her nor me nor any girl, neither. I look like him. Like my old dog.
I don’t know why but from a time on I’ve lost all ability to communicate. I can speak, but it’s like watching a video of yourself set back a second: you hear your own words and try to catch up to the speed of the words you´re still hearing and so your words begin to lose their mean and drive you crazy.
Do I not make everything I say loud and clear like my father taught me? Why can’t I then, say how much everything hurts? Say, I’ll be walking down the street some day and when the wind touches the skin in my face it feels like sandpaper or like itti bits of glass piercing my eyes and tangling in my hair. I crack two eggs into a pan and feel like the shells have magically traveled into my throat. Everything pierces my very core and In my mind, I hear the girl that wears my face so calm, so calm, that the rest of the space I have to fill with everything that’s loud. That’s when I think she’s real dead. I’ll be yelling all up in here and she won’t ever stir.
Its glass. It’s all glass, it’s all glass. Everything feels like glittering shards of glass I eat and breathe and rub, rub, rub on my skin. I want new skin. I want this one to fall out just to see if there’s anything left of me underneath it. But what would be left? I get real blue when I start asking myself questions like this, all smart and deep like who am I? that’s how them old professors go crazy.
My momma, she tells me it’s just a love loss, and I understand her mean but somethin’ deep inside tells me it’s no love loss at all. I just can’t put nothin’ into words these days. How could I make people understand that every cell in my body has changed? I’ll be combing my hair in the morning and see salt and pepper curls. I look like him and I am him, think I’ve been him for a while and that girl wearing my face was just me but I couldn´t recognize her.
That day when it all crumbled, I felt like I, the girl born and grown from my momma and pops that I knew so well up until I met the dog was dead. Dead and done. She died.
Now I say there´s a girl wearing my face because I see her in any passing reflections but I’m not her.my flower sundress he so liked twirls in the wind and I feel it’s fit has changed. I’m getting bigger like the time he was growing inside me but now it’s different. Now I’m growing into him. I’m him. I have his eyes. My tongue utters his words. I hear my voice inside my head and it’s so deep. So deep and soft and cheerful and I’ll be talking to just anyone, anyone at all feeling like at any moment I might just burst out and say
Baby! You’re so pretty and honest with your tits hangin’ out like that!
My man.
Huevos Imperfectos (2019)
I. Dos claras y una yema
Entre dormir media hora más o levantarme temprano para arreglarme y desayunar, prefiero dormirme con la ropa que voy a usar el día siguiente y cagarme de hambre toda la mañana.
Esa es mi filosofía de vida. La norma suprema por la que me rijo. Dormir más porque dormir mejor no es una opción, no estaba en los astros, no se me otorgó, y despertar con poquita gripa siempre porque obviamente dentro de este gran diseño del que soy prisionera, me dormí con el pelo mojado.
Esta es la rutina, o al menos lo era, hasta que fuí con la pinche nutriologa.
Aparentemente hay un montón de razones #científicas detrás de no desayunar y seguir gorda. En mi lógica precaria solo supuse que estaba bien porque obviamente entre menos comida ingieres menos engordas, ¿no? Pues no, porque ahora estoy parada descalza en la báscula de la nutrióloga que parece tecnología de la nasa viendo los deditos mal pintados de mis pies y esta extraña nave espacial dice que peso 80 kilos con un índice de grasa de 38 puntos.
- Oiga, ¿Y cuál es el normal?
- El normal es 20 o menos, señorita
Ah, pues chinga tu madre.
Pero chingué a mi madre yo porque también me dice que tengo la edad metabólica de una mujer de 60 años y ¿Qué se hace con eso? Nada, que pasas de ser una persona de huevos con pan y mantequilla a una persona de dos claras y una yema con pam, o sea el espraisito ese para cocinar sano, y entre comidas 5 almendras o mitades de nuez.
Me cagan las almendras y además, las nueces tienen aproximadamente 24 calorías cada una. Eso quiere decir que en una dieta “normal”, o sea sin déficit, que es equivalente a 2000 calorías por día, si te comes 84 nueces un martes cualquiera o la aplastante cantidad de 27.7 nueces por comida ya no puedes comer nada más nunca. También puede significar que en realidad eres una ardilla.
¿Y qué creían? ¿Que por gorda no estoy todo el día sumando calorías? Que un huevo no tiene cara de 155 kcal? Pues no.
No voy a pararme aquí a decir una serie de mentiras de las cuales la más grande sería decir que no tengo un desorden alimenticio. La gente dice, bueno, si tienes un desorden alimenticio ¿Por qué estás gorda?
Y la respuesta a eso es que sí, hay muchos tipos de desordenes alimenticios, pero la verdad es que creo que el mío me salió mal, como todo. Siempre estoy contando calorías, antes vomitaba pero es poco sustentable como hábito y luego empecé a optar por laxantes pero eso es, por decir algo, inconveniente, como hábito. No quiero venir a llorar y decir
- Hola, soy María y tengo un desorden alimenticio...
- “Hooo-la Marí-a”
Porque tendría también que decir que es un desorden de vida y de prioridades y de closet. Soy una persona desordenada que le pone mantequilla a sus huevos, o al menos lo era, porque ahora soy una persona desordenada que piensa en huevos escalfados con pan de granos y mantequilla mientras se traga tus 5 almendras y piensa, con anhelo, en la media taza de frijol con un cuarto de aguacate que le tocan de cenar.
La dieta es difícil porque entre más la haces más la piensas y te lleva a lugares muy oscuros. Un minuto eres la chica del poster comiendo ensalada y riendo y al siguiente estás masticando pasta fría que encontraste en el refri y escupiendola en el basurero. No acaba nunca.
Yo sé que todo esto es muy difícil de escuchar. Que cuando alguien habla mal de su cuerpo el tuyo cambia, y de repente ya no te sientes igual. Estás sentada ahí en tu lugar y sientes cosas que antes no sentías, como los pellejitos de tu espalda o que si te acomodas mal, el cinturón te parte en dos la barriga. Lo sé porque pesando 80 kilos toda la vida tuve amigas de 50 que cuando compran ropa dicen cosas como
- Me gusta esta blusa pero mejor me la compro cuando tenga los brazos menos cerdos.
Y tus brazos, anteriormente muy útiles y funcionales, se convierten en dos aletas de ballena azul y te vas, nadando, hablando en cetáceo, diciendo:
- Chuuuuuiiiiiiingaaaaas a tuuuuh maaaaadre Caroliinaaaaaawh.
II. Eliana hace los mejores huevos
Lalo no se queda a desayunar nunca, o no sé, ¿Ir a los tacos pedísimos a las 2 de la mañana cuenta como desayuno?
-Eliana hace los mejores huevos- Dice.
-¿Quién chingados es Eliana?
Se va a las 8 de la mañana con el primer rayo del sol. Me da un último beso y me dice que espera verme pronto. Yo tengo clase en 20 minutos. Mierda. Me hago dos huevos de desayunar (¿Otra vez?)
Sigo peda.
Lalo me cae bien porque es cagadisimo y además va con el mismo nutriólogo al que voy. La primera vez que lo llevé a mi casa me pidió la contraseña de Wifi.
-Está pegada en el refri- Le digo.
Se dirige al refri donde también están mis tablas de equivalencias de la dieta y prontamente dice que él tiene el mismo plan alimenticio. Lalo entiende que estas chelas son lo que el nutriólogo llama “portarse mal”.
Y nos portamos mal.
Después de 10 chelas cada uno nos vamos a los tacos. nos besamos y todo sabe a gringa de pastor con salsa. Se limpia la boca que está más roja que la mía y me pregunta,
- ¿Una gringa es equivalente a cuántos cereales?
- No mames, Lalo.
Pide otra coca y lo beso.
III. Huevos con Mashaca.
Para entender esta historia es imprescindible que les de un curso rápido de Sinaloense.
Pongámos 2 palabras de ejemplo:
Sushi y Chancla. Las dos palabras más emblemáticas de mi gente.
Sushi se pronuncia Su-shi, con “SH” suave, por lo cual en sinaloa le decimos Su-Chi, eliminando así cualquier rastro oriental que el platillo pueda tener, para así meterle carne asada y freírlo sin ningún tipo de remordimiento.
Ahora, Chancla.
Chancla se pronuncia Chan-Clah, con “CH”, dura. Es por esto que en sinaloa de décimos Shan-Clah. Haciéndola así parecer inofensiva, por lo que, cuando llega, el ataque de ésta es inesperado y letal.
Habiendo concluido esta lección básica de lingüística avanzada sinaloense, puedo ahora continuar contándoles mi historia.
En mi familia, solo hay una persona que cambia las “CH’s” por las “SH’s”, y es la mísma que prepara el huevito con Mashaca.
Yo me parezco mucho a mi abuela. Ambas compartimos muchas pasiones por cosas divertidas como no poder dejar las cosas ir, no dormir, comprar por internet, vernos al espejo por tiempos prolongados para encontrar què criticarnos, los hombres con bigote, comernos con las manos el pastel que la gente deja en la mesa cuando (creemos que) nadie se da cuenta, el humor negro, ordenar las cosas por color, hacer listas, administrar mal el amor-
Ah pero eso sí, en la administración del hogar a la abuela nadie le gana. Nada que sea cocinado será desperdiciado jamás, y si no te acabas tu Huevito con Mashaca, como el abuelo usualmente hace, éste se va directo a un tupper Minúsculo del que la abuela tiene como 100 para este mismo propósito, y será guardado hasta que alguien (probablemente el abuelo) se lo coma la mañana siguiente o en alguna redada de refri. Lo único bueno del alzheimers del abuelo es que no se acuerda de que hay Huevitos con Mashaca todos los días de desayunar, siempre es una sorpresa.
- Ah. ¿Mashaca?
Y pues la abuela es as así con todo. La cena de navidad dura bien hasta los meses de calor, que no es decir mucho, porque en Culiacán hace calor ya en febrero. Las viejitas siempre dicen que en Culiacán solo hay dos estaciones, verano y la del tren. Si mi abuela dice:
- Ay, hace muuuusho caloor. Es que solo hay dos estaciones aquí en culiacán, verano y la del…
Y mi abuelo está cerca y la escucha, puntualmente añade:
- Y enero, febrero, desviejaderoooooo
Cosa que no es muy buena para él, porque entonces se acuerda de que todos sus amigos están muertos, y te canta una canción, de la que tampoco se acuerda muy bien y va algo asi:
- Todos mis amigos, mhh-mmh- ya se han muerto ya, mmmh- mmh-hhmm...
Si está sentado a la mesa y la abuela se tarda en servile, te ve muy firmemente a los ojos y te dice
- Tu abuela me quiere matar de inanición
Y cuando la abuela le pone por fin el plato en frente junto con sus pastillas, agarra una entre los dedos y exclama
-¡Ah! ¡Cianuro!
VI. Sopitas con huevo:
Que difícil es tratar de escribir de mi mamá.
V. Huevos tropicales
Atzell es mi mejor amigo. No lo digo como lo dicen los niños de kinder cuando aprenden del complicado proceso de selección y fortalecimiento de alianzas políticas necesarias para sobrevivir a sus años formativos (alianzas de las cuales un solo infante puede tener hasta 20).
Me refiero a que Atzell es el mejor amigo que he tenido. Sí, hombre. Hay una cosa rara que pasa cuando tienes amigos que son hombres, en especial hombres heterosexuales y encima sinaloenses que es como, sí, o sea, este hombre es mi mejor amigo (Pero en realidad me quiere coger)
Y con Atzell no hay peros. Es simple: lo quiero y me quiere. No es un arreglo perfecto porque vivimos juntos y vivir juntos es complicado. No hay refugio en las superficialidades, ni donde esconder tus defectos. Veo a Atzell irse a dormir y despertar, en las noches y en las mañanas o al revés, lo veo recién afeitado, con 3 días sin bañarse, crudo, con una peda de tres días, trabajando, cocinando, lo oigo viendo porno, lo he visto llorar.
Atzell es el mejor amigo que resulta ser hombre que he tenido en mi vida, una de las personas que más quiero-
Y aún así me robo sus huevos
- ¿Oye, Puedes traer mas huevos?
- ¿Qué? pero compré huevos ayer...
- Si pero ya no hay.
Ya no hay porque no tengo dinero esta semana y me comí los huevos de Atzell. El otro día agarré su suéter. Y siempre me pongo sus chamarras. Probablemente traigo puesta una ahora mísmo, pero el futuro es incierto. O sea, como justificación, todas sus chamarras son robadas de alguien más, pero bueno, ese no es el punto.
El punto es que Atzell, en un afán de querer ser más saludable sin ningún fundamento en la ciencia, y sin dejar de tomar cantidades alarmantes de tequila, hace los huevos con tanto aceite de coco que no saben a nada más. Son como huevos tropicales. Lo perdono porque lo amo y porque hasta hace 2 semanas no tenía idea de lo que era un huevo escalfado.
- ¿Cómo que no sabes qué es un huevo escalfado?
- ¿Agarraste mi suéter?
Le pongo un documental de qué es la trufa negra y por qué cuesta tanto mientras él se come sus mantecadas bimbo.
Yo se que no soy una persona fácil, y tampoco hay peros. Si es la hora de las confesiones, debo confesar que:
- Cuando se me acaba la pasta de dientes voy a su baño
- Me acabé su shampoo este verano
- Cuando compra queso yo me lo chingo
- Desapruebo de su gusto en casi todo
- Me cae super mal borracho
- Me se la contraseña de su lap
- Se donde esconde cigarros.
- Uso su gel para peinarme las cejas
- me pareciò muy bizarro su breve romance con isaac
- me pareciò aun mas extraño su breve romance con Santiago
Y creo que Atzell sabe todas estas cosas. Creo que, además de ser pionero en el nuevo concepto de los huevos tropicales, Atzell es muy bueno no pidiendo más de la gente de lo que la gente puede dar, y tampoco se exige dar cosas que no puede dar a él mismo, lo cual es una virtud, pero debe hacer difícil el vivir con una persona como yo, que quito tanto.
He dicho tantas verdades incómodas ya que una más no me cuesta nada:
- Siempre trato de dar lo mejor de mí, pero no siempre sale. No siempre sale porque no lo hago todo con las mejores intenciones, no siempre pienso en los demás. No soy perfecta porque no quiero ser perfecta porque para ser perfecta hay que dejar de ser egoísta y no quiero hacer eso.
- Oye, ¿Quieres un omelette?
- Pues va. Voy sacando el aceite de coco.
VI. Huevos rancheros con frijoles de lata
A este hombre le gusta más la idea de tenerme que yo. Me lleva a su casa del Bar y cuando estamos en su cuarto y me quito la ropa me pregunta si mejor no quiero un boxer y una playera. Le digo que está bien. Duermo en su cama y no me toca ni un pelo. En la mañana me hace de desayunar
- ¿Uno o dos?
- Dos.
Pone el plato frente a mi y prende las noticias. No hablamos mientras comemos, Aristegui parlotea por los dos.
- Tengo salsa verde ¿Quieres?
VII. Huevo revuelto (sin sal)
Tengo otra compañera de casa a parte de Atzell. Se llama Frida y es como mi hermana. Pasamos tanto tiempo juntas que la gente nos ve como un combo. Siempre me acompaña en todo lo que hago.
Le he quitado tanto que ya no dice nada. Lo da por sentado.
-¿Qué te estás cocinando?
-Huevito.
-¿Me das?
-¡no!
-mmm, le falta sal.
Frida y Atzell son lo mejor que me ha pasado en los últimos 10 años de mi vida, sin exagerar. Creo que antes de ellos estaba muy sola y no tenía muchas cosas que fueran reales. Creo que nadie me conocía bien. Siempre saben lo que estoy pensando, saben qué palabras van a salir de mi boca antes de empezar a formarlas en mi cabeza, saben que soy yo la que se acaba el papel de baño y aún así compran más.
Frida terminó en casa de un hombre el otro día y dice que el güey no comía nada más que huevo.
-¡ Y había pilas y pilas de cartones de huevo en su cuarto!
-¡Pero no son para aislar el sonido? Dijo que tenía una banda…
- O sea sí, pero se los come.
Dice que cuando se iba a ir en la mañana el hombre en cuestión le preguntó que si se quería quedar a desayunar
-¿Ya te vas? Apenas voy a hacer el huevo...
-Adiós.
Llega a la casa a las 8 de la mañana habiendo dejado el maquillaje en alguna desafortunada almohada cholulteca y Atzell le hace unas quesadillas
(Con aceite de coco)
VIII. Muffin de chocolate (sándwich de huevo con queso):
Ya es 24 de noviembre y Cath llega a las 10 de la mañana a mi casa balanceando en las manos dos cafés del starbucks y una bolsa de papel con motivos navideños y manchas de grasa. Supongo que hay dos muffins dentro de ella porque a las 8 de la mañana me llamó para preguntarme si queria dulce o salado.
A las 4 de la mañana antes de colgar el teléfono me dijo que me llevaba el desayuno, y aquí está. Es invierno y puede que ya sean las 10 pero ha estado nublado por tantos días que siento como si aún fuera de madrugada. Tampoco he dormido mucho. Siempre que me levanto sin sol algo me dice que voy a viajar. Que estoy lista para tomar un vuelo de las 6 am Mexico-Culiacán con un montón de otros Culichis desmañanados que odian esta fila de viva aerobus con todo su corazón, pero ahí llevan las Krispy Kreme, pa los plebes.
Cath está usando un suéter gris enorme con cuello de tortuga que le queda de vestido y unos jeans rotos. No se quien tiene los ojos más hinchados, si ella o yo.
Pienso, mierda, que bonita es.
La dejo pasar a la sala y pone los cafés y los muffins sobre la mesa,que todavìa tiene cenizas de cigarro y algunas botellas de tequila y squirt. luego, sin más ceremonia se desploma sobre el sillón.
Antes de ayer, yo nunca había cruzado más de tres palabras con Cath y hoy siento que es parte de mí. Que la conozco de toda la vida y que la amo. Llorar con otra persona hace eso, supongo. Llorar peda en un bar lleno de gente y dejar que la otra llore (más) le hace cosas raras a tu cerebro. Me gustaría prepararle unos huevos pero la noción de volver a ver un huevo y un pan tostado en mi vida me pone aún más triste y creo que a ella también.
- ¿Por qué lloras? – me pregunta el dueño del Bar cuando estoy pagando mi cuenta.
Cath ya se fue a su casa. Se la llevó una amiga. Quedamos de hablar más tarde e ir por un café en la mañana. El dueño del Bar es un viejo metiche que no me conviene. Pronto seremos amantes y me prepararà unos buenos huevos con frijoles de lata, pero yo todavía no sé eso.
- Pues pasó algo.
- ¿Quieres un mezcal? cortesìa de la casa.
Supongo que también por eso me siento tan mal. Se rumora que el mezcal de la casa en realidad es gasolina.
Devoro el muffin de chocolate en segundos.
Cath y yo compartimos novio y nos enteramos ayer en el bar. A las dos nos hacía el mismo sandwich de queso y huevo.
the house and the hole (2018)
The universal, very first outside is being born, being outsided, outsider forever now.
2. This is a result of the first inside, which is your mother’s womb.
For the rest of your life you will try to reverse this, and every inside will be a result of having been outside.
Outside is not forever. We’ll get there.
I. Safe as houses
When I was 12 we moved into another house. My mother convinced us that we would like it, said it had a view of
the ocean and all, but mostly all you really got from the ocean was a hint of a darker blue before the skyline plunged
into the houses- and the sound. The fucking sound. The waves crashed all day long and all night they would never
stop crashing. I think I went a little crazy there. It occurs to me now that heat might be an inside, as well. Heat feels
like an inside, anyway. Heat will keep you safe- no harm can come to us inside-. Unlike in the case of the ocean,
there was nothing unkind about the heat here, in this time houses began to feel less solid. A house, when you are a
child is such an unmovable place. Houses are unmovable places that dearly hold things inside. We, ourselves could
live any place at any time if we did not hold Things so closely to our hearts. A body is a house. Were bodies not
enough? Did they have to be inside and inside and inside and inside-? How strange we have built places where we
could not stay.
Here was the catch, all along, the catch in the making of houses: The shelters were taken by the spiders, by the wind.
Houses remain, ageing and unyielding, to tell your story to the next host, and theirs to the next. Houses forgive no
one. I wonder what the house that heard the ocean would say. I wish it was taken by the spiders, by the wind. We
only stay when we are dead and they burry you in the ground when you are dead or when the want you dead. They
burry you for you to stay in the darkest house yet you have ever had. What stories tells the house inside the earth,
who sees nothing, who hears nothing. Houses forgive no one.
Before me, people built giant houses for gods they could not see.
Like me they dug the holes for the dead.
Gods do not go inside holes, they go inside the houses.
There is a hole in the backyard now.
God is not in my backyard.
They burry you in the ground when you are dead or when the want you dead:
They put you in the ground, you go, inside of it
kitchen
When I was a house I was a kitchen.
I was a shiny black granite kitchen island with five lime green stools, my floor a classic black and white tile, my
cupboards guarded by big, beautiful wooden doors. My white ceramic sink lined with pot plants that never lacked
nor sun nor water had a view of a garden with green closely cropped grass, a bamboo fence and a mango tree with
a bench underneath. Dragon flies buzz about. It’s summer outside, the crickets and the cicadas sing.
When I was a kitchen I was so loved.
When I was a kitchen I was a coffee machine making wondrous sounds and smoke coming out of a toaster-oven. I
was a burnt slice of bread that could be replaced with a new one, a tray with all sorts of cheeses, a glass bowl with
grapes and ripe figs.
Can you imagine?
I was a kitchen with a pitcher full of fresh orange juice and a jug of milk. I was a good omelet.
When I was a house I was a kitchen.
My black and white tile stained with pancake batter, sticky with syrup or sweat. People made love on the black
granite island with the windows wide open. The summer is so hot here, my vision is hazed by it, all I see glows in a
soft white light. The fridge is full with Tupperware neatly stacked. It hums happily. I was a kitchen.
I’m a kitchen now as well. My time is not borrowed from anyone. I just am, but I have changed. My island is a sandy
brown plastic granite imitation. My wooden doors painted a cheap reddish brown. There is a big glass window
overlooking a garden where the grass has grown wild. Strange bugs menacingly buzz about. There is a hole in the
ground and I wonder why. I’m a kitchen and the wondrous sound of the coffee machine has been replaced with the
clacking of a metal spoon against a mug. Instant coffee. A fruit bowl filled with light bills and forgotten coins. Dirty
dishes crowd the aluminum sink. Someone keeps leaving the milk carton out. The secret to a good omelet is good
butter, but here no one knows that. I do my best but plants die. I was a kitchen and I was so loved. I am a kitchen
still, now. Still a kitchen now.
evil milk(2018)
I never put the milk away.
You know the milk carton?
the one that goes inside the fridge?
I leave it out.
I leave it out all day and go about my business and it goes bad.
Of course it goes bad.
Milk goes bad if you leave it out of the fridge for a period of time
it’s as simple as that
It is known.
it goes bad.
So bad its almost evil.
Evil milk.
I’m thinking about this as I notice my morning coffee tastes sour.
I deserve that.
I deserve this preposterous
cup of coffee
and never getting into heaven because I’ve left the milk carton out too many times before to write it off as an accident.
maybe, deep down what I’ve always wanted was for everything around me to be as evil as me.
Especially the milk.
It’s a petty kind of evil, really,
An evil without an agenda
an evil who does not even want to rule the world because
The world is just a series of
non-homes in which the milk goes bad even if you put it in the damned fridge because you’re never even home to begin with.
You leave your eggs
and bread
and cheese in there with your milk for a few weeks of living in other people’s apartments
and when you get back it’s all just as evil and it’s talking trash at you, telling you how it’s amazing you’ve gotten this far in life when you can’t even put your god-damned milk away,
or wash a single dish,
or sleep in your own fucking bed
or even fuck
in your own fucking bed.
You leave the food for a week and it goes just as evil as you.
As evil as eating it
or as evil as thinking eating is evil
or just as evil as living all alone in a place where no one knows who you are or who you belong to.
Evil like missing your friends because they left you,
because you’re evil,
because you drink their milk instead of yours and evil like saying a word so many times it loses all its meaning.
You took that away from the word.
Because you’re evil and all you do is take.
Evil like being stubborn as they come,
like not listening to anyone ever
like knowing how to fix things and not doing it.
I’ve left the bleeding milk carton out enough times to know that things can go askew in less than 24 hours when the answer is right there, buzzing and cold in the stillness of the kitchen,
a dirty dish that can be washed, mold in the coffee machine that could have been avoided if you’d just clean the filter and
the blessed milk would be okay
and this coffee would be good if only you had placed it in the fucking fridge like a normal human being.
People that would be here if you’d said you’re sorry
Or I love you.
Things that would be better if you’d said no thank you to a drink or an uber ride or, very randomly, a free sour cream can.
Wounds that would have never opened and stripes you would have never earned if you could just be less like a milk carton in the sun and more like your mother or her mother or just mother Teresa.
The milk is evil but the milk is only evil because you left it all alone and god knows that hell hath no fury like a milk carton scorned.
Milk goes bad, if you leave it
It goes so bad.
Semiotics class (2018)
In the beginning, the word.
I just learned that in my semiotic class.
The world is built around the word and not the other way
The word makes the world the way we see it is the way it is because we think it is because we see and read and understand it is and-
I believe this.
I don’t believe in many things but I believe
If you don’t say something out loud it is not real.
It can’t be real
Because it’s inside.
Like that cat in that box, no?
Like that one cat-
Whose cat was that?
What kind of dude leaves his cat in a box anyway I
Honest to god I
Could never do-
I love my cats
I love my cat
I love my-
semiotics.
I adore semiotics.
It’s my first-period class my
One pm class my
Not even in the morning class and I’m
Failing that class.
My first-period class,
My first period my first
Period my period my period my period my period my period my period my-
I never stop having it now.
It’s always there now I’m
Always bleeding now I’m
Now I’m
How dumb of me to think I
Could live the rest of my life hungover on a hungover on a hungover
Hungover on a hung hung hung hunggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg-
Over and over and over again.
This one’s called tequila and it’s for the ladies over there who have seen the lights over their heads with their legs wide spread beneath a baby blue robe and were told they could not scream and it goes a little like this
(one, two, three):
I DON’T GIVE A FLYING FUCK
I DON’T GIVE A FLYING FUCK
I DO NOT GIVE A FLYING FUCK
WHAT YOU THINK AND I DON’T
GIVE A FLYING FUCK OR EVEN A WALKING FUCK
OR EVEN AN OVERPRICED UBER RIDE HOME WITH MY HEAD DANGLING OUT THE WINDOW ABOUT TO PUKE MY INSIDES OUT AND MOSQUITOES CAUGHT UP IN MY WATERPROOF MASCARA FUCK THAT SHIT IS STRONG FUCK I’VE CRIED AS MUCH WATER AS I’VE INGESTED GATORADES OVER THE PAST MONTH AND IT WILL NOT BUDGE FUCK
OR A GREAT FUCKING FUCK
FUCK THAT LEAVES MY LEGS SHAKING FUCK OR FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN FUCK WITH THE FEAR IN THE BACK OF MY THROAT FUCK THAT I WILL EVER WANT ANYTHING EVER AGAIN LIKE I WANT TO TURN BACK TIME NOW AND STOP BLEEDING FUCK I DON’T GIVE IT
I DO NOT GIVE THAT FUCK I
I WILL NOT GIVE IT
I WILL NOT GIVE IT TO you
Fuck-
Tequila teq
Teq
Teq
Straight from the cardboard box straight from the no
No, no this is not Chinese takeout this is another poem give me a second I’m not like that anymore it’s not like that time I'm okay I’m okay now I can be okay now I can be good-
I can be good for you.
It was the smoke.
How dumb of me to not know where there was smoke there was a fire I
Learned that in semiotics class it’s a
Symbol or a
Sign but the
Hungover monster demands SAUCE.
SAUCE AND CHEESE
Sauce and cheese sauce and cheese
Sauce and not NOT Not this now I was talking about
Semiotics I was talking about how when there is a fire it’s a sign (or a symbol) it’s a sign of how
You should have known you
Should have known
You should have known you-
Should have
Semiotic
Semiotics class?
garbage man (2018)
I, myself, like a dirty dish.
-Submerge yourself in chlorine, María.
Egg shells and ash, life smells like eggshells and ash and banana peel. I’m sitting in a crowded classroom and it smells…odd. I turn my head a little and smell the collar of my jacket. It smells like eggshells and ash and banana peel. I smell like a trashcan. It is inescapable. I smell like two-week-old dirty dish. My pores ooze with this smell. I roll it around in my tongue. We can never escape who we are. Is this who I am? I am a kitchen.
I wanted to be a kitchen like my father. My father is a black and white classic tile. Wonderful flavors emerge from his hands, his bare feet move around the black and the white and I wonder how he does it, I do the same- just…throwing things in a pan- but it’s never the same. My cooking is flavorless-plain.
-Submerge yourself in chlorine, María.
People come by all the time. The kitchen sink is lined with –
Banana peel egg shell cigarette ash-beer cans.
People come by and drink and smoke and laugh- they eat my cheese, pee in my tall grass- but there’s always something that stops me from the merriment of it all. You cannot feed the people you love in a like two-week-old dirty dish. What did you cook? Why won’t this stain come out?
We cannot escape who we- Yeah
fuck you
but better yet
fuck all the time I’ve wasted masturbating on a prayer, trying to cook
the perfect egg, trying to mop up the remains of an entire lifestyle.
And yes, I have had better days thank you very much.
Days not waking up at 8 am to miss the fucking garbage truck
anyway, or spent trying to figure out who I fucking am in relation to
who I fucking was or just wondering who I’m fucking next. The fucking
fucks I gave have all been relocated to an account in the Cayman
Islands and are as of now, untraceable.
Not even I will be able to find them.
And by “I” I mean the part of me that’s like the fucking
Spanish inquisition sometimes and just
Stumbles
Across all kinds of information that
A) Will do no one no good and
B) Are none of her fucking business?
I mean, doesn’t she want to relax instead of trying to make her
own pasta from scratch and failing and poisoning everyone she loves?
Does she not fancy, say, a fucking chill pill?
We’re so split, her and I.
Divorced from each other but unable to pay the rent on separate apartments so here we are.
Pass me the toothpaste please.
Of course I’ve had better fucking days,
Like, for example exactly 11 years ago
(And my god is this how Mick Jagger feels when he talks about the good old days?)
A boy asked me out on my first real date ever.
He took me to an oxxo nearby and we had hot dogs and iced teas sitting on a table outside.
It was midnight and the stars in the desert sky were so bright...
He had a girlfriend.
God, I love boys.
Men.
Always have. They’re my weakness.
The next best thing to fucking one is being one, I think.
Of course I’ve had better days.
If I were a boy I’d be allowed to stay thirteen till my late fifties but that’s just flown out
the window hasn’t it?
Look at this bitter bitch.
Can’t she just go back to the kitchen? And I’m like, I’m trying okay?
But everybody knows it’s hard to make rice and I’m beginning to think occultism
might be a more adequate pursue, instead of trying to make creamy spinach taste
right.
Do men find this attractive at all? I mean the men I date.
Do they go “Oooh look at this girl and her perpetual state of disarray, my god look at the pile of trash bags in her driveway I must possess her”
It’s because I remind them of their beloved, dearly departed bachelor pads, isn’t it?
If that’s not what draws them in then I’m clueless as to what does.
Today I paid 96 pesos for a pack of camels.
I’ve had better days and I’m starting to think all it takes to make this Monday a
mildly good one is being run over by a bus.
Or just the garbage truck!
Under the sole condition that it will finally take this trash bags away from my
garage, and that the garbage man may say, personally, when I die, at my grave:
“Here lies María, so beautiful despite the rapid loss of all her hair.
So cunning and yet she never did learn how to properly administrate her time,
laundry wise.
Never did learn what to do, exactly, to not have to haul eleven kilos of dirty laundry to
the laundromat every few weeks or so.
If only she had taken the laundry once a week.
The walks of shame she would have spared herself.
On a side note, she died in dirty jeans, anyone notice that?
Green salsa stain, I tell you,
Green salsa stain.
Never did find her other sock, so that’s that. You’d think by 24, she would have
figured out the secret to getting places on time?
She did not.
And how convenient of her, to die just before she had to turn in her final
assignment. Ever lend her a pen? Yeah, good luck getting that back. Maybe I’ll
finally have something to actually take notes with now that she’s gone...and hey,
I’m just the garbage man, who’s the asshole who wrote this girl’s eulogy anyway?
Take it away, garbage man, take it away...