Poetas y Pintores: Artists Conversing with Verse

The Artist The Poet

Fernando Salicrup Victor Hernández Cruz

"El Camino"

2005

Digital Output, 27" x 36"

The Poet

Victor Hernández Cruz

Los New Yorks

In the news that sails through the air

Like the shaking seeds of maracas

I find you out

Suena

You don’t have to move here

Just stand on the corner

Everything will pass you by

Like a merry-go-round the red

Bricks will swing past your eyes

They will melt

So old

Will move out by themselves

Suena

I present you the tall skyscrapers

As merely huge palm trees with lights

Suena

The roaring of the trains is a fast

Guaguanco

Dance of the ages

Suena

Snow falls

Coconut chips galore

Take the train to Caguas

And the bus is only ten cents

To Aguas Buenas

Suena

A tropical wave settled here

And it is pulling the sun

With a rope

No one knows what to do

Suena

I am going home now

I am settled there with my fruits

Everything tastes good today

Even the ones that are grown here

Taste like they’re from outer space

Walk y Suena

Do it strange

Los New Yorks.

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