I Left My Heart In SF

I LEFT MY HEART IN SF

but I’ve never been in SF. I want to go to SF. When I moved to the States at age 12 we moved to Vallejo. To a trailer park. It was not far from SF but I never made it. I got my first nerf. It was a nerf football. A small dog chewed the ends of it. I understood the need to chew soft spongy things. I did not chew the nerf. I chewed the play dough.

JUMPING THE SPEED BUMPS

I threw the nerf over the speed bumps in the trailer park. I would jump the speed bumps and catch the nerf. I was learning to use my hands rather than my feet.

IN PREPARATION FOR MY CITIZENSHIP

I got a gumball machine. I put a coin in (it was also a secret way to save nickels) and out popped a gumball and a small card with the name of a U.S. president. That way I could memorize the U.S. presidents. I liked the current one at the time. His name was Ronald Regan and he reminded me of my first American hamburger from K-Mart.

BLUE LIGHTS

It was the heyday of the blue light special. I got my first American hamburger near the blue light special. Near the mothers tearing into clothes. I stayed cool. I ate my hamburger. The hamburger was bigger than any hamburger I have ever eaten. I was very well behaved. I loved the texture.

CRABS

I wanted to have sex with one of them. I kept hearing my parents say juicy and crab meat in the same sentence. I did not know crab meat. But eventually I developed a need for the crab meat I had never seen. I went to sleep imagining crabs. This is not a metaphor.

COWBOY BOOTS

were from k-mart. They were snakeskin. But really plastic. Plastic snakeskin. I never got a hat to go with them.

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