Arnoldo García

my words my languages are nothing more than my lovers

I am not a train

my tongue is not a railroad

my heart is not a steam-engine,

my language is not a combustible explosion

I do not stop to switch lines so that someone may understand me

I am a transnational suicide language bomber

I have dictionaries, dirt and communities strapped to my chest

I explode in mixteries

I am not a code-switcher

I am a river of sounds made by communities

singing

flying

in the dust

I cough up ancestors

cambio al español

paddling through the rough waters

of having english forced down my throat

drowning my Mexicanness

under the whips and slaps

of white teachers

monolingual monsters

who feared anything they didn't understand

and attempted to break down

My language is a wild horse a crazy horse an untamable horse

a migrant horse

un caballo locote

un caballo indomable

un caballo que relincha con el viento

i am no code switcher

i do not change directions like a train

no i am fluid water muddy waters avalanches lavalas

a mass movement of syllabic hammer and sickles

a dictatorship of communal tenderness

a french kiss con labios mestizos

un beso que nunca puede ser un kiss

un beso donde intercambios saliva ancestral y deseos hondos

como las raíces de mi lengua y sus lenguajes

mis palabras no son más que mis amantes.

my words my languages are nothing more than my lovers