Newly conscious in Union City,<\/p>\n
that so-Jersey place with all-Spanish signage<\/p>\n
my parents grew up in and around.<\/p>\n
We drive by a huge blue-logoed highwayside gym<\/p>\n
that used to be a Toys R Us.<\/p>\n
My brother and I often begged to go<\/p>\n
when we still lived nearby. That spot<\/p>\n
housed all our dreams.<\/p>\n
Here my eyes clock<\/p>\n
the person next to me\u2019s left knee against my right one,<\/p>\n
its tenderness<\/p>\n
a babe<\/p>\n
of our mutual rest.<\/p>\n
How rare to feel cozy with a man neither friend nor fuck,<\/p>\n
face half-viewable, stubbly, his skin a few shades lighter<\/p>\n
than mine, a small, thick left hoop earring<\/p>\n
I think is diamond.<\/p>\n
I imagine his mother wears<\/p>\n
or wore similar ones,<\/p>\n
that he respects women.<\/p>\n
I imagine we are two brown queers sharing this row.<\/p>\n
How we might otherwise have met awake<\/p>\n
at Papi Juice<\/p>\n
Bubble T or some other<\/p>\n
Brooklyn brown queer party.<\/p>\n
Man<\/em> and his <\/em>are, of course, projections<\/p>\n much huger than the rest;<\/p>\n also can\u2019t recall if I saw them wearing two earrings<\/p>\n when they first sat beside me in DC,<\/p>\n or which ear is the gay ear. Still asleep, their legs shift away<\/p>\n and our babe slips down the gap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Newly conscious in Union City . . . <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3046,"template":"","categories":[9,49,119],"tags":[6,37,813,814],"class_list":["post-3045","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-literary-features","category-poetry","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-hispanic-heritage-month","tag-kyle-lopez","tag-on-the-megabus-from-dc-back-to-new-york-700am"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n