the rix mix

I don't think I'd like Hugo Chavez very much
if I met him in person, but I could find
Venezuela on a blank map, & my godfather,
Buddy, worked there for Cities Service
before he went to Tierra Del Fuego
& mysteriously fell into the ocean
& drowned along with his son in 1962
while fishing from some rocks.
I remember my broken-hearted parents
could not comfort each other & that's
when I knew their marriage was really finished.
So I walked round the corner, sat on the church steps
by myself & looked at the stars & wished
I could be in Atlantic City with my Nana,
who had raised her nephew Buddy like a son.
I don't think I'd like Hugo Chavez very much
but when he referred to George W. Bush
as "the Devil" in New York & said,
"It still smells of sulphur today,"
I was glad someone else noticed the stink.

Labels: poem