“I don’t like Puerto Rican pussy,”
the older boy said to a friend.
He was talking about a girl with a crush:
So, yes, he was talking about me.
This was 1982, in a private
Christian School in the South
Where daily Jesus and Satan battled it out
For our pliant, immortal souls.
And I was confused because
It didn’t seem so godly, what he said
Though he was close to the minister
And seemed fed on God’s beauty.
And I was puzzled, it’s true, not understanding
All the words he used or the reason
For his hasty denial, three words
The apostle Peter, surely never uttered
Puerto Rican Pussy.
But I was twelve years old
And my bewilderment mainly sprang
From the fact that I was
Cuban and not a cat.
Excerpted from GRABBED: Poets and Writers Respond to Sexual Assault, Empowerment & Healing by permission of the author and Beacon Press.
Ana Menéndez has published four books of fiction: Adios, Happy Homeland!, The Last War, Loving Che and In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd, whose title story won a Pushcart Prize. She has worked as a journalist in the United States and abroad, lastly as a prize-winning columnist for The Miami Herald. As a reporter, she wrote about Cuba, Haiti, Kashmir, Afghanistan and India, where she was based for three years. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications including Vogue, Bomb Magazine, The New York Times and Tin House and has been included in several anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. She has a B.A. in English from Florida International University and an M.F.A. from New York University. A former Fulbright Scholar in Egypt, she is now a program director with Academic Affairs at FIU. She lives in Surfside, FL, with her family.
SWWIM Every Day is proud to present poems by women-identifying poets appearing at Miami Dade College’s 2020 Miami Book Fair.
Miami Dade College’s 2020 Miami Book Fair will host over 200+ authors from all over the world in conversation, in readings, in storytelling, all virtual, all safe, all unique, and all FREE between Nov. 15-22. Reading from their new work will be Diane Louie, Nikky Finney, Heid Erdrich, Jane Hirshfield, Danez Smith, Kazim Ali, John Murillo, Jen Karetnick, Jorie Graham, Kevin Young, among many others. And in conversation with Miami’s own Campbell McGrath will be these poets laureate: Robert Hass, Juan Felipe Herrera, Joy Harjo, among others. Access to Miami Book Fair 2020 is free. For more information and to register please visit MiamiBookFaironline.com. Follow Miami Book Fair @miamibookfair, #MiamiBookFair2020 #MBF2020 #MiamiBookFairOnline.
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