To Angelina from Nikos in His Old Age

The time comes, Angelina, and the day’s blinking.
No sleeping around, no mother,
nothing interesting about the weather.
We played hooky a lot and made gossip.
But I thought you liked it, cheating on Nisseem
who became emperor of coffee—
xxxxxxhow’d he do it!
He was loaded, I was good in bed.
You got your rich husband,
and for years my cock.
You fussed over the time I
sprayed your new lilac dress twice in a row.
I loved your thick hair shaking
at the sink as you rinsed your dress.
My husband, you screeched,
xxxxxxhe will kill me he will sniff this he
xxxxxxwill chase me out with the dog!

Boy was I a nut.
You at thirty, I forty-five,
and Sonia my wife. If she caught the slightest cold,
xxxxxxthey said, You poor angelic sufferer,
xxxxxxthat lousy rat Nikos slept with gorgeous whores.
Pow pow what a lawsuit.
Come on, Lina, we have cheering up to do.
Do the calculus. I’m eighty, you’re a luscious sixty-five,
xxxxxxchurch pillar,
voluptuous benefactor you are practically the Pope.
You think I’ll stain your reputation.
xxxxxxLina little closer I want to breathe you.
You’re gray? So’m I,
xxxxxxnobody’s looking.
This is Trinidad. We were the left margin of Spain.
It is evening and I have no money.
Once I was great and you wanted me.
I surrender; I wanted you more.
Nevermind Althea, nevermind Lucky
from Kuala Lumpur,
the Americans were just a lark, topless—
what could I do?

You were a woman. Forgive me I didn’t tell you,
you were my spark, your lowcut bodice.
Don’t rant at me later if I wink at you in church.
I, a Portuguese, wanted to claim Cervantes,
so all my life I rode my horse.