maybe I hoped you’d be a Viking / hair lustfully blonde / with skin every color except spic / an
impossibly tall and husky boricua / in whose hands would be anything but a machete / anything but
this island’s smallness / and maybe they’d write epics about you / or at least Marvel comics /
anything but West Side Story / the spectacle of us / chupacabras / and J Lo’s nalgas / or maybe I
didn’t want you / this small child from a small island / to bear the weight of a “Wilfredo” / have to
travesty yourself / “I go by Fred” / “you know, like the Flintstones” / because maybe you were an
immaculate conception / and that’s why I go by “Mary” / and your father goes by “Will” / as if he
were William / as in Shakespeare / or maybe I just had a thing for Erik (given name Enrique)
Estrada / you know, from Chips / or maybe I don’t have an answer / and you didn’t have to be
born / to a small woman on a small island / with small frogs that sing / anything but Nordic ballads
/ about anything but American flags / and why didn’t you ask me / what to the Puerto Rican is the
4th of July / because maybe a name is just another way of saying I’m scared / meaning I love you /
meaning if only / meaning if only / this were not / meaning if only / this were not / the world’s oldest colony.
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Contributor Notes
Born in Puerto Rico, Eric Morales-Franceschini is a former day laborer, US Army veteran, and community college grad who now holds a PhD from UC, Berkeley and is Assistant Professor of English and Latin American Studies at the University of Georgia. His scholarly works have been published or are forthcoming at Global South Studies, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Centro, Comparative Literature, Jump Cut; his poetry and film reviews at Tropics of Meta, The Rumpus, Newfound, Boston Review; and his poetry at Somos en escrito, Moko, Chiricú, Dryland, Witness, and Acentos Review.
