Layaway

Ricardo Maldonado

We were acquiesced
to the crimes of our disloyalties and slack exchanges.

Look, my life is not what I like
it to be. This year, mornings imply an act of bravery.

We are figuring what it might be like to live
knowing intimates and conflicts with size.

Look, we could prove what we have
yet to dispraise.

Look, the window displays are changing.

All the males have mated and move on
in the city’s red gloss.


Ricardo Alberto Maldonado was born and raised in Puerto Rico. His poems and translations have appeared in Boston Review, DIAGRAM, Sidebrow, and Guernica. A recipient of fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts and Queer/Arts/Mentorship, he is the Managing Director of the 92Y Unterberg Poetry Center.