Part 10

At a young age my eyes swallowed page after page of an illicitly acquired copy of the Kamasutra from cousin Amy's library. 

The eroticism spread in those glossy pages and all the morning dew it sprung from this young Poet, couldn't prepare me for what ensued from Mario's mouth. 

Looking around for a Crockett and Tubbs Miami Vice sting to spring up, Mario wore a paranoid personality. 

Looking through my shades and in my give me the story motherfucker, I've had a rough night attitude, I bit my tongue and as docile as I could I said "Chill dude." 

I had never been more aware than ever that Mario needed me to be his Fort Knox. He needed to deposit his guilt as if telling me would afford him absolution.

Was he trying to shorten his time in purgatory or have the elections of his eternal campaign swayed? Either way his tithes would fill the pages of my new dog Pulitzer. 

"Dude she wears no panties, before we left the bar she let me know. Fuck she's a wild one."

If he only knew that she had given us all a peak at her pink on her way out the door last night. 

Mario drives the typical midlife crisis kind of car small, sexy and German. 

"Did you take her on your sled or did she trap you into her Rover?"

Bewildered he looked at me. "How did you know we left in her car?"

Mario feeling sloppy with his indiscretion started to tap his fingers on the table or maybe the jolt of the watered down coffee was hitting him. 

Either way our cats cage was rattled. 

If I didn't calm my muse down, I wouldn't get the combination to the vault. And so I began to smooth out his rough edges. 

"Great night last night, you got taken by Barbie in the Barbie mobile. Did you swing from the tree tops Tarzan and was Jane all she could be?"

"I got in her car the Julio was kicking my ass but the tunes on that Rover kept me chasing her tail."

"We live in the same neighborhood. As soon as we got to the guard house I had to scoot down, all the guards know me, for god's sake I'm on the board of trustees."

"Quickly she drove into her garage, she lives on the first house on the left. I was holding my breath till the garage door closed."

"How could I feel like I'm in enemy territory in such a familiar place. Shit dude I walk my dog up and down her block."

 

"Maybe because you did cross enemy lines, she is your neighbor and she's married."

"Yeah but the sex!"

"She ripped my shirt off, there wasn't a button left on it."

"We couldn't make it past the foyer, I nailed her to the wall as quickly as I wiped my feet on her welcome mat."

"Gravity didn't exist for all of me held all of her on that wall. This Goya wasn't going anywhere, delirious screams cemented her to me."

"She sunk her canines into my shoulder and drew blood. I raised my gaze at her and snarled as I fixed my eyes on hers."

"I chased her gaze to the door on the left, I knew she wanted me to carry her there."

"Every shade of grey adorned this room."

"The sheets had a high sheen reflecting the moon light that was coming through the glass blocks at the far wall on the left were the shower stall was."

"I couldn't make out how the ceiling had a hint of natural light. At first I thought it might have been a skylight. My jaw dropped when I realized the ceiling was mirrored."

"As I slammed her on the bed my senses took the room in."

"Thrusting my life in and out of her, I was drinking it all in."

"I couldn't get enough of her. I had been intoxicated before, now I was poisoned by every atom of her constitution."

"I was going to town guided by carnal instinct. With every thrust she would stare into my eyes unblinking for what seemed to be two eternities. Her eyes wouldn't blink, I was mesmerized."

"Headlights approaching the driveway on the other side of the shower has a way of bringing you back from the outer edges of the stratosphere."

"She noticed I tensed up and in a pleasured tone said "Don't worry about a thing." That freaked me out even more."

"My fight or flight choices diminished when I heard the peculiar sound of wrangling keys penetrating the key hole."

"I don't know what was louder the creaking of the door opening or the screams of my heart telling me to jump out the window."

"None of this would matter after I heard the words he uttered."

"She's a tiger isn't she, it would be a shame to let her go to waste with just one man."

"I gestured to her in a panic. "Who is that?" And she calmly replied "That's my husband."

"He never stepped in the room, from the other side of the half open bedroom door he said "I'm going to make some coffee do you guys want?"

Rubia couldn't keep quiet to save her life. "Yes please" she replied."

"I'm trying to process this and she's in the mood for coffee."

To be continued...

Part 9

I spent the night over at Susy's because I was a DUI candidate. I regretted it all day long. I didn't want her to get the impression that I was starting to nest. 

The usual suspects at my North office and by North office I mean the Miami Lakes Starbucks could tell I was in an unusually crossed mood. 

The gang there typically get the bubbly side of the Poet, not today. 

"What's wrong Wordsmith?" said Pete, who for some reason likes to be called Alberto but since I'm not into split personalities I said "Bug off Pete."  He is a decorated man what branch I always forget. 

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed" the lovely Lilly snickered as she sat down. Lovely always leaves our communal table littered with breadcrumbs yet no one utters a word on account of her temper. 

"Hey you jackals stop jerking the Poet's chain he might cast a spell on us" said Ruiz in his best sarcastic out of work actor demeanor. 

This motley crew was giving me shit and I was in a wear your sunglasses at night kind of funk. 

All of the sudden a ray of sunshine. 

Phone display reads "Hey Bud are you in the Lakes?" It was my muse and I suddenly remember the last time I saw him I gave him 50/50 chance of survival. 

My nose for the story perked up. 

I ignored the hooligans by my side and texted "Yes sir I'm at Starbucks."

Mario knowing we would have no privacy there suggested we have breakfast at Brother's of Brooklyn an unusual Jewish bagel shop in the land of the YUCAS of North Dade. 

He was sitting on the large black and white booths in the back, reading the local rag and sipping poor man's coffee. 

This was starting to have a Scorsese flavor to it. 

He had his aviators on and I couldn't help asking "Are we taking off Captain?"

"You and your wit Poet" he smirked.

 "Sit your ass down so I can give you the lowdown."

I said to myself "This day might end up sunny side up after all."

To be continued. 

Part 8

I saw Rubia heading for the door with Mario in tow. 

She was wearing a sleeveless porno short yellow dress. 

All good mothers remind their children to wear clean underwear in case they have an accident. Rubia being Rubia always went commando and tonight was no exception. 

Leaping over the threshold a bit excited she put her family jewels on display for all to see. 

A few minutes later I got a text from Mario; "Rubia is DTF we are out."

To the untrained eye it might have seemed that Alexander the Great had conquered Alexandria yet it was this she wolf that dug her claws in our stray sheep. 

Rubia is a vivacious thirty something blonde, she wears her Coral Gables nip tuck body with authority. 

She and Blanco are married and depending on his mood their marriage is an open marriage or not. 

He runs the legal/illegal slot machines that you see in the gas stations all over town. If his collections were fat Mario would be in bliss, if they were light he would get a cauliflower ear and a busted nose to match.  

Even though it was close to one in the morning Susy was calling me with the 5 o'clock in the morning song playing in the background. 

I knew that call to the wild. 

Had one more Julio for the road and walked out of there with a grin on my face and a bulge in my chest. 

Susy would get what all that dare sleep with a poet get.

Great sex followed by a broken heart. 

To be continued. 

Part 7

"You've been a scoundrel all your life yet I've been the flagpole flying the family colors."

"What would you know about being dad and breathing fire into your little dragons?"

"What would you know about little league baseball and East Cobb tournaments? You've been clubbing and skirt chasing all the while I fought the winds of change and stood still weathering the storm."

"What would you know about one man one woman and the ups and downs of it?"

"Don't patronize me with your smug bohemian gaze, walk in my shoes for a quarter century then write me a poem you prick."

Not wanting to be the kryptonite of my 305 bible I pulled the claws back from this calf and left it to graze while the hot gate keepers loosened their restrain and began to fill the dance floor. 

Rubia showed up she is a regular at Cancun on Friday's I've had a few words with her yet never getting behind and driving her. 

She made goo goo eyes at Mario and he was fit to be tied maybe he knew more than I did cause Rubia would tie and whip his ass. 

He left the table on a sink or swim mission to get with Rubia. 

I just nodded to myself, stallion on the loose. 

As soon as he was ten paces away I said to myself "Is this guy going to lead or follow."

I had no idea the Don Julio would open new depth into this cat's cranium. 

To be continued. 

Part 6

Tequila arrived I sipped it and Mario inhaled his. 

I said "Slow down cowboy if you drink too much truth serum it might get the best of you."

He looked at me and said "You are so right about the truth."

I paid little attention to his one liner and kept my eye on the door. 

The nine to fiver's for life were letting out and soon everyone's secretary would be as Mexican as tequila. 

Choo choo train style Mario pounded Julio, kiss after kiss. 

Fear of the blank page kept yours truly sipping and breathing it all in. 

Running his right index fingertip on the brim of the the Murano shot glass, he darted his rage at me, while never raising his gaze. 

"You know poet you are a son of a bitch! You get all the pussy in the world, wash off guilt free and trek on, while this heathen gets boiled for a kiss."

I smirked and knew this Marlin was gut hooked. 

His tirade ensued

"Yes I fucked her and the mirror on the ceiling proved that she was there. 

As absent as I could have been, that birth mark on her right butt cheek checkmated me."

"What would you know about this poet you are in a different bed every night you haven't been the Statue of Liberty for any one woman."

My angry muse had no idea he was inevitably feeding me.

I poured us more Julio and patted him on the back. "Let it out my friend, let it out."

Not knowing what came first the chicken or the egg I quickly remembered my old mans words "Una cara de come mierda bien administrada vale un millón de pesos" or the Sun Tzu something about humbling yourself in front of your enemy. 

Not that Mario was my enemy but if you get in the way of Pulitzer and me you are in trouble. 

To be continued. 

Part 5

 Wearing his UM garb even though he had gotten his education at Biscayne College, he fed his forensic smile to the help that suffered him by the minute. 

Salsa and chips adorned the table yet he swallowed the air of his importance in this small kingdom of his ghetto.

Miami Lakes only existed for Hialeah people and they were casting Mary Brickell dreams onto their offspring.

Yet our surrogate did backstrokes at the Indigo Hotel.

Sitting down with the property it takes a landed shark to swim in the shallows, he said "Hey Poet what's the good word?"

Smirking in silence and husbanding my future New York Times best seller status I bit my tongue.

"How's it going Captain?" I said with Guilligan demeanor.

He sat into the leather and wood taburete with authority. 

I swallowed hard to keep from laughing at this stockless stew. 

I was as always humming a new rift and he struck a chord with "Guess how my week went?"

Fishing yes I had been taught the art by my father on account that Jesus said "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

Knowing my line was thin I stroked his ego by saying prey tell, "How went it Captain?" 

Niagara Falls has less water than the fish bowl my captain of industry commands. 

Yet this sucker is my future, he is my Barnes and Noble book signing, hot babe waiting afterwards ticket, so I reeled slowly. 

"We danced the night away, killed a few Grey Goose and half gallon of tonic."

"She is so crazy we parked a block from Blue Martini at the vacant lot across Lolitas and she lunged to hold my hand all the way to the stairs that lead up to Blue Martini."

"Keeping my composure I pulled away and she said don't be a drag Honey we are in Miami and it's all good all that see us are on team indifference."

"Poet as hard up for her as I was I recognized a tiger."

Probably the smartest thing he had said and Don Julio hadn't shown up yet. 

To be continued. 

Sex in My City Part 3

The week floated by yet the incessant thought of Mario's confession flooded me. 

With all the birds that eat from his hand and the theologians that swim in his lake, why me? 

Why did he pick me to unload his burden?

Bouncing between hurt and anger I tried to come to terms with his need to tell me. 

Is it because I fall in love with a different girl every few months and cry myself to sleep the rest of the year?

Did he believe that because I don't spend the night, that made me a heartless Casanova?

I was having that eerie feeling that I was being used, I was a means to an end. 

I was a friend from the past why unearth me to be the confidant?

These ideas swam around and around, they were the great white in my head.

He made me feel dirty. 

His white glove world and yet his shame sought my free spirit. 

I met Susy for a cortadito at Holiday Bakery around eleven in the morning. 

She was the fresh apple I was now dating, code for my next heart break. 

We had met a few weeks back during happy hours at Hillstone's in the Gables, a local meat market without any prime rib or filets, if you get my drift.

She is a realtor with a lot of free time and mid morning coffee was right up her alley. 

I was asking about her leads for this new year, just making small talk. 

She began to tell me about a few properties on the river, probably picking up on my disinterest she flipped the conversation around. 

"How's your Pulitzer coming," she asked in a sour tone. 

Matter of factly I said, "I am writing a novel about a fall from grace of epic proportions."

I don't know if my disgust with Mario or my need for a bullshit line to shoot Susy's sassiness down but in a blink of an eye my next novel bubbled to the surface.

Mario wanted to use me and I would juice Mario.

To be continued. 

Sex in My City Part 2

Now that I've peeked your interest let me paint you a picture into Mario's life. 

We are both forty five except his birthday is in August and mine is in January, I always call him old man. 

Not just because of a few months difference in age but he was always laying plans for the future. Road map Mario we would tease him. 

His father had been in Korea. Mario grew up in a disciplined home. I always found his "yes sir, no sir" a bit strange. 

We always played pickup games at Babcock Park in east Hialeah, basketball, football whatever the sport of the season was. 

In every sense of the word Mario was a Boy Scout, he made it all the way to Eagle Scout. 

He met Silvia his wife at Sunshine Skating rink on forty-ninth street. 

We would spend our weekends there before we were old enough to be bar flies at Casanovas. 

She was the prom queen, her feet never touching the ground. This prissy girl had found her gentleman in the making. 

They were the "it" couple.  

He was my friend yet I lived a million miles away from his life. 

I was trouble. 

I would daydream into my poems or I'd be sleeping on my desk. 

It was in middle school that I was baptized the Poet by my friends. 

I would write the love letters they would fold into paper footballs and flick at girls. 

I challenged my teachers until the eleventh grade, then we called it a draw and parted ways. 

I had trouble tattooed on my heart from the word go. 

The longest girl I had was Gypsy, I think it was three weeks. I would always have another conquest in mind. 

Maybe that's why Mario and I as adults ran in separate circles, Sylvia knew I was trouble. 

Mario and Sylvia are the proper pillars every community relies on. 

She is the soprano in the choirs at Our Lady of the Lakes and Mario is very involved in the religious retreats. 

They are the fundraisers everyone counts on for all noble causes and a few political adventures. 

They are the wise owls who have purchased a few vacant lots in heaven. 

Like I said neighborhood heroes. 

As the curtain came down on our first interlude It became clear to me that I was the only soul Mario could find solace in.  

To be continued. 

Sex in My City Part 1

Mario and I have been friends since second grade. We met at St. John's Catholic School, Ms. O'hara was our  red hair freckled teacher. 

We don't see each other as often as we would like but we always reconnect effortlessly. 

We had agreed to meet for coffee in the New Year. 

My favorite Starbucks in the heart of Coral Gables was to be the spot. 

We sat down in the coffee colored leather arm chairs. 

After a few minutes of exchanging pleasantries we moved on. 

His eyes watered and the tears surfaced.

I said "What's wrong? I got you."

He raised his gaze at me, it might have been a firing squad cause I got shot up.

He wouldn't stop crying and all I could do was look at his dread.

"I've gotten myself involved in a triangular situation and I need to be free of it", he said. 

" I don't love her yet my wife circles, fin up."

"I've  been having an affair with Maria for over three years now, a casual sexually charged relationship."

"We see each other sporadically."

"We met while sweating bullets on the stairmaster at Shula's. An old and tired gym that the local moths frequent."

"I was telling her about the love hate relationship I have with this machine and she was telling me how she would rather be jogging outside."

"On this a rainy day I sheltered her with my umbrella to the door of her car and she thanked me with a kiss."

"We exchanged numbers as the rain watched our first sin."

"Dinner and chitchat with the wife over salad and Macallan at my favorite Italian restaurant, Italy Today, in Miami Lakes came and went. Yet I still had her taste on my lips."

"The days would run and I would wonder  about her lips."

"Thursday a few weeks after our first kiss we met for lunch at Cafe Abbracci, a stuffy staple in the Gables. We had drinks at the bar and never made it to our table."

"The airport and all of the motels filled with passengers that weren't going anywhere but their lust filled escapades, were all to close for these ambers that raged an inferno."

To be continued...

Payback

It was our last night in the magical yet cold city of Toronto. 

I dropped of my crew at the lobby of the hotel that had been our home for the past week, so we could empty the rental car of a weeks worth of memories. 

I had been parking the car in the parking garage next door, four levels below ground, everyday in the same stall by my daughter's request. 

I settled the car in, zipped my jacket up and installed my freezing digits in its pockets and headed up. 

Stepped into the elevator and ascended. 

Now I remember the first time I saw her, it was out of the corner of my left eye, her shadow leaning against the wall. 

I was cold and kept on keeping on in my distracted poem in mind state of mind. 

She was now strutting next to me close enough I could smell her nail polish. 

She was wearing a long trench coat it was dark, but it wasn't black it was seal skin, she wore a blue blouse blue earnings and pendant, her hat matched her coat. 

Her facial features were strong she stepped with confidence. 

Without much thought I said "Are you staying in the Marriott?" And she nodded yes. 

We walked together in silence for an eternity and a half. 

Maybe she is sheltering herself against the wind or maybe this pointer scared up some game, I said to myself, I was at a loss. 

She wouldn't walk straight she was leaning into my path so I had to keep stepping to my right.

One time too many she did this and provoked these words out of my mouth; "You smell like destiny." 

She raised her gaze and looked me square in the eyes and said. 

"You smell like an uninvited guest who wraps your hostages in these blasé words that fill your ego."

"You are the poet who whips words into the wind and castigates."

"You smell like cheap French cologne and scotch."

I was startled by her and tipped my beret back to get a better look at her. 

We were now standing still and the world outside froze in attention to the lady in the seal skin. 

I said "Do you know me?"

She said "We all know you, you aren't fooling anyone."

The poetry bit is all fun and games till it's a two ton elephant crushing your heart. 

"You have me at a disadvantage you seem to know more about me than I know of myself" I said.

She moved in closer and closer, I could see her heaving chest as her words escaped her mouth, she seemed possessed. 

I saw her red lips move before I heard the words, "I hate you!"

Those were the last words I heard before she embraced me. 

Her lips found mine. 

Taking the sweetest breath before every kiss I drilled into her burnt wood eyes and stole the reflection of dagger in hand 

She pierced my right shoulder blade all the while kissing me, she dug her dagger into me. 

She looked me in the eyes and said "This is for all who read you."

"This is payback."

I was pinned but not in pain, I begged her to let me bleed slowly. 

I knew a stab in the back wouldn't kill me, I could friend the knife, not her absence...

Cardboard harem

My neighbor Farah's parents got a new washer and dryer set. She and Yamilet, our other neighbor, made a palace with these gigantic cardboard boxes in Farah's front porch. 

I was eight, these girls we're ten and twelve. Taller than both of them I was their toy, if you get my drift. 

I was told we were going to play house, I would be the dad. I followed their every direction to a tee. 

To this day I can't recall their roles. I hate to think that I was exposed to polygamy at such a young age. 

We played in those boxes every day after school. 

I would disappear into these moist cardboard caverns and come out gasping for breath, never complaining. 

With the rains of May our Pied de Terre became a perilous love nest. 

One afternoon I showed up ready to play my role and to my dismay Farah's mother had crushed the boxes and with it our love affairs.

I sulked for what seemed to be a hundred years but actually it was a few weeks. 

Summer broke out and school let out. 

My octogenarian neighbors four houses to the right of me had two granddaughters, they would visit every summer. 

One of them would stay in all the time and keep busy with coloring books and dolls, her name escapes me. 

Pilar was the prettiest of the two and the first girl to kiss me in such a way that my hair stood in attention, I'll never forget her name. 

I think Yamilet might have had a loose conversation over a cafe con leche with Pilar about my recently acquired skills in the cardboard harem. 

Somehow I ended up locking lips with Pilar in the back of a newly constructed garbage can enclosure across the daycare center. 

Kissing sessions between Pilar and Yamilet became my summer, they would arrange it. 

Farah's being away En La Escuela del Campo, made this easier. She had turned thirteen in June, she was my oldest girlfriend at the time. 

Summer ended and I was learning at a young age that women decide and man just play the role. 

A few months later I would be on a boat north bound to America leaving my innocence behind.

The young life of a poet...