daydreaming
I remember a faint   foggy memory—
south bronx
rican and dominican roots
the patterson projects
john adams houses

a child into a teenager
dates	days  places   people  
their names have faded away

like the clouds i would stare at 
through my fifth-floor window

i was that kind of kid   
daydreaming all the time   
wondering
where are those clouds going	       
i want to go there

my mother cooking	
the sweet smell 
of arroz con habichuelas	
y bacalao	
that i could buy for a dollar		
la bodega across the street	
the salt 
rough 
over a single slab       
of cod fish

between the spanish radio station 
in the morning
there was plenty of time for america 
out of the black and white tv

bozo the clown
dead end kids
forties movies	james cagney 	
abbott and costello	
bela lugosi
sci fi  horror movies

watching spanish tv 
with my mother
novellas
my only chance to hold on to my dream 
where everyone spoke 
spanish around me 	
to me	from me

it’s all faded away

like the clouds i would stare at 
through my fifth-floor window

i was that kind of kid   
daydreaming all the time   

wondering
where are those clouds going	       

i want to go there.