Coward

by | Feb 21, 2012 | Poetry

The words are harder to dodge
than his left hook would be:
Hit me, come on pussy, hit me!
Players at the other end of the court
stop dribbling & form a ring
around us.  I feel them throbbing,
hear the hissing of that frenzy
building that begs for blood
but I know how easily an elbow
fractures when you straighten
the arm by the wrist & apply
pressure to the leathery flesh
protecting the bone.  He leans in,
shoves me with his upturned
palms & I wonder if he knows
that his eyeballs are softer than
eggshells & that a finger jab could
make my face the last image
he’ll remember for months
while the gelatin that are his eyes
try to heal.  He says, Hit me!
What are you a coward?  You scared?
I whisper it & almost believe no one
hears it but they do & all goes quiet:
Yes, I’m afraid—I’m afraid.
That moment when I must decide
to suffer or to cause suffering is quick.
I turn my head as he connects, my jaw
accepts his fist & I soften the blow,
& when I see my face in the fear on his
& when the weight of my knees pushes down
on his biceps & I cup his face with
my fingertips like it’s some thing I’ve created
& the spit is gone from my mouth
I am afraid, God help me, I am afraid.
Coward by Roberto Carlos Garcia

Photo used under CC.

About The Author

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Poet, storyteller, and essayist Roberto Carlos Garcia is a self-described “sancocho […] of provisions from the Harlem Renaissance, the Spanish Poets of 1929, the Black Arts Movement, the Nuyorican School, and the Modernists.” Garcia is rigorously interrogative of himself and the world around him, conveying “nakedness of emotion, intent, and experience,” and he writes extensively about the Afro-Latinx and Afro-diasporic experience. [Elegies], Roberto’s third poetry collection will be available December 2020 from FlowerSong Press. His second poetry collection, black / Maybe: An Afro Lyric, is available from Willow Books. Roberto’s first collection, Melancolía, is available from Červená Barva Press.

His poems and prose have appeared or are forthcoming in POETRY Magazine, The BreakBeat Poets Vol 4: LatiNEXT, Bettering American Poetry Vol. 3, The Root, Those People, Rigorous, Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day, Gawker, Barrelhouse, The Acentos Review, Lunch Ticket, and many others.

He is founder of the cooperative press Get Fresh Books Publishing, A NonProfit Corp.

A native New Yorker, Roberto holds an MFA in Poetry and Poetry in Translation from Drew University, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.