Long Listed for the 2023 Griffin Poetry Awards
Slaughterhouses
e defendant was a skinny, dirty waiter, “why you spat
in the cognac?” they asked him, “I had to survive too”
he said; they had also brought a pseudo witness, covered
from top to bottom, “asshole”, I said, “I recognize you:
you’re the one who didn’t let me go up the stairs.”
“better” he said “because what you could had done if
you met him in the stairway?” and the strange man again
stood outside the slaughterhouse, “just tell it all” people
yelled at him and he started narrating about a visit and
how his hat fell on the stairs in front of everyone, “they
were all laughing” he continued, “but soon as I bent
to grab the hat I saw the feet of the Lord,”
and when they brought the new men at midnight, let it
be, I thought to myself, don’t tell them anything,
they’ll have to figure it out on their own.
Libros Libertad 