Page 31 of You've Got a Place Here, Too
I tried not to seem too eager, but I was cheesing so hard
my cheeks were like mountain peaks on my face.
In our dorm room the next day,
Josh watched me get ready.
I put on my chain, my deodorant,
my curly hair was freshly washed, my clothes were just laundered.
I ironed a shirt on my bed,
and it was at this point that Josh stood up
and handed me a blue glass bottle. “Spray in your elbow, neck,
and generally here.” He gestured toward his groin.
“That shit you’ve been spraying smells cheap.”
I laughed but did as he said. “You got a date?”
Josh is on the football team and everyone
in his family went here for school.
I shook my head. “Just a study date.”
He shook his. “A study date is a date.”
He reached in his desk and pulled out some mints. I took one,
but he shook his head again and offered up the whole tin.
I gave the Hotesse picture above my desk a salute,
and I knew pictures couldn’t head nod, but I swear he gave me
a “go get ’em” little chin lift.
I FaceTimed Mami, on my walk to the simulator,
but she didn’t answer. Instead of videoing me back, she called.
But even though I couldn’t see her,
Mami couldn’t hide the tiredness in her voice.
She didn’t want me to see her after this last treatment.
But my imagination pulled from memory
and painted the picture: her dry chapped lips,
the purple bags beneath her eyes from lack of sleep.
Tía Luisa was in singing Raulín; from the other room the notes echoed.
