We say, I write, that escribo que decimos que
nuestra misión, mi raison d'etre,
es mirar a Mesoamerica desde la frontera de Tijuana
to look at ancient America from the frontier of Tijuana
but I cannot get my mind off of old Babylon Mesopotamia
but what is "look" anyway
what is Mesoamerica
and what's from
and what
is
la frontera de Tijuana :?:?:?:?:
Is it are they los gulfos entre
¿Es que son palabras
the gulfs el gulfo este
entre
between words
lines
el gulfo entre palabras?
¿Or is it no más este lugar en la costa donde
el mar encuentra la tierra o es que es only
this place on the coast where the sea
meats the land
(sic)
[moot]
bla? Sí. See . Yes . Djess .
..-___________________________________________________________..-
¿ Y "desde" what is "from" ?
..-___________________________________________________________..-
desde up a to esta escritura
from me to thee this writing
from you to me this reading
desde tu hasta mi esta lectura
pues que me escribes well that you write me eh
too también
no, that is not from only
ese no es desde solamente
rather a lo mejor
"desde Tijuana" no, desde la frontier de Tiyei
from the frontera of T.J.
criss-criss
croquis
ay gringo escribes no más un montón de palabras
you only write a pile of words
that Ramón en mi corazón
habla speaks in my heart
nunca puedo escapar I can never escape
su censura his censure
hard wired
into my being like all my loves and friends and acquaintances
and there you are, too, if you speak
no obstante I am grateful to him he thought he was criticizing me when he said
over and over again
oh gringo some of your poems are nothing but piles of words I hope you don't
hate me for saying
heh heh heh he doesn't realize what a
L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E school of poetry
c o m p l i m e n t c o m p l e m e n t
h e g a v e m e
oh Daniel go phuk sum sour grapes why don't ya
no obstante que yo no vivo p'allá no matter I don´t live there any more
it don´t make no never mind he´s all wrapped up baking inside
political cookies for the next mayor no no no I will not
say any more at all about that I am only a foreigner
it will not print his name
no politics foreigner
except He runs the racetrack and betting shops
and David refried gringo won a bunch of money
on the Kentucky derby and will buy me a beer
tonight he's doing well but looks tired etc
David that is, not Ramón
no politics only the beauties and art
strange wonders of culture
delicious food and
mmmm beer
¿Table dance, mister?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
hazme el favor de never never write a long gain long long ever never again a
long
long
Long
LONG
entry like era was
Sunday d o m i n g o
25 abril fue it was
que
fue
< >
not apo strophe remember
< >
Mommy why do they hate us so
in Mesopotamia ?
I don't know dear, ask the President
why
AS USUAL
we didn´t find out anything about it
until the media splattered it all over
hmmmmmm?
COULD IT BE.....
...... ¿satan claus?
is looking on and laughing
"oh baby I liked it like
that, yes, you Americans
are soooooo funny...."
and the perverse photos of
naked Iraqi prisoners and
shit.grin.com Americans
and now you know
WHY Tijuana got
such a bad name
for itself for
drugs and drinking
and whores, why, Mommy?
Because all the Americans came here and came all over and over and slept
kinky in our own precious vomit oh God help me but I am not very pleased
with my own people now
nevertheless She is my country wrong or right and sometimes from the other side
one sees one's own much more clearly than stuck in the middle of the forest yes
excuse me while I v*o*m*i*t
and
show you the damn picture anyway
worshiping the porcelain goddess in my own way
look how so very very proud of themselves they are oh God dammnit WHEN!!!!!!
WHEN ARE WE GOING TO LEARN THE WAR sucks no matter what or where
or who or when or how or why it sux big rocks and broken
glass slashing down your throat as you drink the
sweet, warm blood of imperial desire mmmm
yesssssssss do it again, please....
and now they are saying it was "military intelligence"
that made them do it, not the devil
hhhhhhhhell we all know that "military intelligence" is
an oxymoron and contradiction yes isn't that why the frack
we got stuck in Babylon in the first place eh?
oh no, I forgot, we got stuck there because Sadam threatened
Bush number one and so Bush number two is dumping it
crap
and now this....._?
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I would rather just go have a beer with David, later
and the real world=intelligent?
ay no. Far away on capitol hill they are screaming for the bush blood of abuse
and I only scribble babel in another babylon babble on standing in a little house
in the garden where José Pastor is hanging his paintings inside I look, I look,
we talk I can never find in one glance even a fraction of the feeling and thought
he put, he puts, into a work. Artist. Sigh. Shall we have a cup of coffee and
try another English lesson? What exactly do you want to teach me? What to learn?
Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear my trousers rolled like taquitos and steal lines hear
from T.S.Eliot nailing them down onto the cross border frontier
where I grew up next door to the anthropological other pues
JUAREZ: el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz
I am no anthropologist but I steal from them, too, I am no
prince Hamlet; only Rosencrantz, not Guildenstern no only
Rosencrantz I was once upon a time when Vietnam was fresh
and the smell of napalmolive filled our kneejerk newspaper
I hurled them every afternoon onto front porches and lawns
all around the slopes and skirts of lower Alto drive and
Mesa Grande or was it Mesa Vista heh I forget 30 years later
I lied -- was 40
mmmm old man Severin I still remember his pond and how he liked
his paper early he used to growl at me when I wasn't there by
4:30 yes, yes, yes he did and now only a few more years and
I shall be like him locked indoors widowed behind housekeeper
and memories of my last time I oh no there's more there's more
tis too much too hope for they will probably shoot me
first for this crap I write babel babel
or feed me to the meat grinder
where no No NO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
toque madera knock on wood yes no .
no No.
I have come down into the city center since I began this
text of diarhea blog at home I began at home
and now I am in the garden at el Nopal
it has been ten days now since we moved
since I moved in with one whom now I sniff
woof woof woof
in the garden the horrific heat is not so bad
not so bad in this garden behind the nopal cafe
at the head of cinco de mayo just beyond 6th street
downtown in old Tijuana after coming down from Nueva Tijuana
by green and white taxi full of men and women zooming along across
the barren urban flats of Otay mesa past the new art piece strung out along
the border fence with artists who did not all give their permission to be used and
so as usual there is a bit of scandal but no one in the taxi talked about it at all
it was all TOO DAMN HOT and we dropped down the Airport Road into the valley of
the river who made this place what it was and what it is and what it will be again
and under the trees of the Paseo de los Heroes with all the traffic going beep Beep BEEP
and the vagabond standing on his head for tips while the boys juggle oranges
aya it is still Tijuana even though I have moved to the far, far side of it
from the old to the new yes and
THANK GOD for shady trees and cool water and believe it or not
I AM DRINKING COFFEEEEEEE it is so nice here in the garden and
outside the city burns under late afternoon sun
and I, old poet, grin into my pen
on the border between paper and electronics
imagining HTML and
you .
heh heh I said I will not write another long rambling piece
and look what good it did me I did it anyway heh heh
enough already cut it and post it and kiss it with a seal
arf arf arf I miss my next door dogs
Ramón's dogs
the chocolate labrador
big fat loving creature
looks like a brown sea lion
when he sits down
Gonzalo the kitchen worker pointed out to me
I have left them all behind in the center of old Tijuana
maybe I will go see them after class
IF I GET ANY STUDENTS
nooooo I am going to go look for David refriedgringo in his favorite bar
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
go man go
i n t o
t h e
f u t u r e
oh yeah as if no one else
we all are moving there
now right now tonight
and then tomorrow
and so on and
so on and
so on
and
so
o n .
okei bai okay bye
from the edge
of this page
in Tijuana
P.S. Nueva Tijuana is different.
Yes. I think I shall like it.
I already found a couple internet links and
maybe
we will even get connected at h o m e .
COULD IT BE.....
...... ¿satan claus?
is looking on and laughing