Bounty

By RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO

21 de septiembre de 2017: “pero estamos vivos”

One: home
Two: home                  dos tres dos tres          two: Mother.

One lápiz. One pen. One ocean between us. Six: Home.

Seven: FEMA: four thousand more,
I recite.

I state I am large; we are to be
larger.                          Uno dos tres siete dieciséis cuatro mil
más I begin with. I begin dentro de mí, dentro

de nosotros.

I accuse one man. Two men. Three men. Men men. State
men. I accuse whomever I find

I found. I found. Mother, I foundered.

I wanted that truth: one ocean more, one home more
than a wave is glass.

I am one man, more large and savager.

Two men. Three Men. State four, mother. State five. State

state. State, dios te salve, en mí, madre. En tí, dios te salve.

Ricardo Alberto Maldonado was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He is the translator of Dinapiera Di Donato’s Collateral (National Poetry Series) and the recipient of poetry fellowships from Queer|Art|Mentorship, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and CantoMundo. He is managing director at the 92Y Unterberg Poetry Center.

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