Malcolm Friend
Clemente's Love Poem
for Vera Zabala
I know
you hate
my anger.
That you think
I shouldn’t
have yelled
at the clerk
for assuming
us poor.
But when
he said
he thought
I was
“some other”
Puerto Rican
I was hotdog
and hypochondriac
and nigger-spic
all over
again.
Vera,
I know
you don’t
understand.
You haven’t
lived here
long as me.
Haven’t been under
a thousand
cameras,
crushed
to insignificance
even in stardom.
But when
he grabbed
your arm,
acknowledged
you were pregnant
and extended
a tender touch,
I was reminded
of how quickly
it can turn
and how
I never
wanted you
to know this.
Clemente Speaks Spanish after the World Series, 1971
En el día más grande
de mi vida,
para los nenes
la bendición mía
y que mis padres
me echen la bendición.
Primera traducción:
On this, the greates day
of my life,
I bless my kids
and ask my parents
their blessing.
Segunda traducción:
Pa’l carajo, mamabichos.
Que siempre
me criticaban,
que siempre
me jodían.
No valen
ni que te mee
ni que te dé
el bicho mío.
Esto les digo
en venganza
por todos los años
que me hicieron sufrir.
Que mis padres
me echen la bendición.
Bio
Malcolm Friend is a poet and CantoMundo fellow originally from the Rainier Beach neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. He received his BA from Vanderbilt University, where he was the 2014 recipient of the Merrill Moore Prize for Poetry, and is an MFA candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also a 2014 recipient of a Talbot International Award for Writing. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in publications such as La Respuesta magazine, the Fjords Review’s Black American Edition, Alicante’s Información, fields magazine, The Acentos Review, Pretty Owl Poetry and elsewhere.