For Richie

blancito … puro … purito

i mean …
a snow white
all-american
precioso.

coverman
for the most
for the most
delicate
interpretation
of americana

yet
inside
the cubicles
of his
jones act

invasion
law
to make us
puerto rican soldiers

to die
brown
or black
or white
or indigenous

in any war
that we were used
to transport us
world-wide
chained colonialists

he understood
the doctrine
of that principal

so he always paraded
to challenge imperialism

for he knew
that we were
the last colony

for he knew that
puerto rico last
will be first

for we scrambled
our intentions
not to be
ever defined
by the united states

but he knew …
but he knew
in his philosophical
intellectual
community gatherings

that the united states
lives in ultimate
(me esta saliendo)
in ultimate hell

trying to figure out
why we will never
be a state

thank you, richie

Tato Laviera