You do not have ten more years
to throw in a dice crapshoot,
or to study to attain
a level two in tango while cultivating
a cancer you can name after the stolen beauty
mark above the smiley lip of Carlitos Gardel,
a mole on his mug scalded by
the untranslatable mate drink
and by his singing,
a spot stolen along with Juan Domingo Peron’s
severed spotless hands,
to refashion into human gloves of shame
to be worn by some nostalgic oligarch
turned cannibal after much thundering
about civilización y barbarie,
in these ever-dying lands,
a lawbook in his palm to smite, and a last
Argentinean horned marsupial on his wall
for the décor befitting
a house in the country.
I do not have ten more years to achieve
a level two in tango,
atomized in this town
where I was rejected by my cousins,
shunned but not
disowned, for in our core tradition
of ancient cutthroat wops and gyps
we believe in blood oaths and not the Judas-kiss. Uncle Saverio swears by this, however, I suspect he like many Argentines believes in Miami (is Mecca).

Watching TV, even Russia Today here, you may conclude,
there are less intelligently chosen places
to be a dancing atom-mote, far from the Oblasts,
here in misnamed Buenos Aires, already laid waste
and forgotten by the world’s memory-belt nearly as much
as its pedestrians forgot the world that banished
them on Argentine-bound boats
populated by more autonomous howls
than bodies, long not so long ago.

Arturo Desimone was born and raised on the island Aruba and relocated to Argentina to research his Argentinean family background. He was artistic director for the first Aruba international poetry encounter, which places an emphasis on minority languages and on multi-lingual poets who also translate. His articles, poetry and fiction pieces in English previously
appeared in Drunken Boat, Hobart, Fortnightly Review, Berfrois, Fortnightly Review, Latino Review of Books Sydney Review of Books and South Florida Poetry Journal. He has translated poems by Rafael Cadenas and Cristina Peri Rossi for Arrowsmith Press, and has performed at international poetry festivals in Nicaragua, in Havana Cuba and Buenos Aires and now at the international poetry festival of Medellín Colombia.