Yes, I understand: you are no if or but, as I
am to you always mere afterthought or annexation
You are the one to issue then revoke a mandate
and I, the lackey sent to do your bidding
You are high office, powdered wig, gavel, armchair
traveler, bossing; and I, always the colony
You were the battering ram and I the hand-
carved gates of the walled city fallen to ruin
You are the shard of steel blue
hidden in my lolo‘s milky eye
You are the slippery riverbank against which you
pushed my lola and ripped open her baro’t saya
You are the padre, the señor, and I
your bastardo hijo, your hidden puta
You are the revolution I had to wage, and I
the spear I drove into the seafarer’s groin
You are the blood that stained the water,
and I the wrist that did not seal you brother
after the terms of your one-sided contract were drawn
~ after Octavio Paz, “Motion” (“Movimiento”)
In response to Via Negativa: The enemy of the good.