BIO
Mario (Ponce) José Pagán Morales is a LaSopa alumni and founding member of the Títere Poets: A writing collective that explores the boundaries of masculinity, vulnerability and male trauma. Mario has featured at Capicu Culture People's Open Mic, Great Weather for Media, 32 Poets for Oscar Lopez Rivera and Who Needs Healing? He is also the co-host of Pan Con Títeres a monthly podcast, which addresses the intersection of poetry, trauma, mental health and the Puerto Rican identity. His work has been published on Sofrito For Your Soul and the upcoming Great Weather For Media Anthology: Birds Fall Silent in the Mechanical Sea.
Don Marcos combs his hair to the right,
leaves a part
hipsters now call style.
He dresses with rough leathery hands from sugar cane fields and coffee plantations
his hands feed his familía
held abuelas face tenderly every day at 3am kissed her hello/goodbye
before picking another man's profit
he drinks his coffee black and bitter.
I ask him why?
He says Elsa was the only sugar he
ever needed.
Abuelo wears 3-piece suit
a black handkerchief
with a calatrava white cross
in his inside pocket,
still wears his 1940’s wing tips
they remind him
of an island filled with possibilities,
He dresses like a mafioso:
Island couture vintage shops salivate over.
Walks with a cane
Indian head pinky ring
his bible held tightly never leaves home without it.
Diddy bobs every third step
arthritis has colonized his bones,
kids on the block call him OG.
Marcos tells me chivalry is dead
men forget women also wear crowns
never spoke disrespectfully to Abuela
only touched her face with his lips.
He tells me que las mujeres dan luz a hombres
we forget that mami is also a woman.
that psst psst mami:
oye Nena
mami Chula
si cocinas como caminas me como hasta el pegao!
is not a woman's name!
Que a las mujeres se respetan.
Marcos dances bolero like sancocho cooks nice and slow.
As nostaljia strums his quatro serves him Bacardi con caña.
he zones out to Felipe back to cantinas, copas rotas, tus amigos, camas vacías,
wishes Puerto Rico was free so he didn’t have to miss su viejo San Juan so damn much!
He's gotten use to Philadelphia,
he can't tell difference between cold winters and people.
le hace falta Guayanilla, las Quebradas y el saludo caluroso del jíbaro.
Marcos sueña con Lola's Borinqueña,
Bracettis bandera and Albizu as governor.
Dice que toda su vida ha sido un esclavo,
that maybe “you mijo”
will one day see un Puerto Rico libre,
walking barefoot en la playita
having a cup of cafe
where the rooster saluda con accento Borinqueño
donde ser pobre means ser rico.
Abuelo has been living una pesadilla
y me dice que cuando él muera que no lo despierten.