Checking in

Hey Bro and Broettes,

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving. I was especially pleased to hear about Olivia’s shenanigans. On Thanksgiving I ended up running into a Colombian professor who spent the last 6 years in the United States so we went out and got Mexican hamburgers to celebrate. Dank.

Also, I’m going to echo Sam and Olivia in acknowledging, with a mixture of sarcasm and awe, the profundity of Julia’s last post. That’s what we in the English speaking world like to call a ‘think piece.’ I wrote a ‘think piece’ once for the esteemed publication ‘Rat Poison’…but everyone (namely Holt Bodish) hated it. So I haven’t tried to use my brain since.

I did write a poem though. I’m going to go out on a limb and share it with you guys. I’m sure Sam will make fun of it but that’s the only way he can show he cares. I wrote it the other afternoon while sitting in Bucaramanga’s plaza. So here it is. Free verse, babies.

Sitting on the steps

Of the Gubernación

Surrounded by bumangeses

Doing what they do

On a Monday afternoon

Smoking a cigarette

With coffee in a plastic

Cup next to me.

With a green v-neck

I bought this morning

In Cabecera

Two hours of sleep and a

Lingering hangover

From an improvised

Sunday night party.

Any hipster would die to

Look as cool as me right now.

I keep losing the words

Because I focus on my coffee.

A poor man wearing a

Spider-man t-shirt came up to me,

Asking for money for his

Wife and child right when

I wrote “I keep losing the words”

Up above. I give him 300 pesos,

The last coins I had. I chose not

To give him my 10,000 peso bill.

He said something about

Liberty being beautiful

And gave me a thumbs up

As he walked away.

In front of me I stared

At a man picking food

Out of a trash can,

As a man in a business suit

Walked by and stared at me.

Behind me is a statue of

Jose Luis Galan

I know nothing about him

I know nothing about

Colombia except what a

Self-centered 23 year old kid

Sees when he walks out into

These streets, behind a

Glass shield of privilege.

These moments on narcissistic

Introspection are delicious.

My coffee and cigarette are

Gone. I’m going to sit here

In this plaza for a few

More minutes, On my

Walk home I’m going to try

To buy a pirated copy of

A Garcia Marquez book.

Using the 10,000 pesos in my wallet.