Letter to Pedro

Letter to Pedro, U.S.Citizen Also Called Pete (Rene Estrella Amper)

Pete, old friend, have been bought by the mayor’s son. Now,
there’s a barbed wire
There isn’t really much change
fence about them; the birds have gone away.
in our hometown since you left.
The mayor owns a big sugar plantation,
This morning, I couldn’t find anymore
three new cars, and a mansion,
the grave of Simeona, the cat we buried
with the gate overhung with sampaguita.
at the foot of Miguel’s mango tree,
Inside the gate are guys who carry a rifle and a
when we were in grade four, pistol.

after she was hit by a truck when crossing the We still go to Konga’s store for rice
street.
and sardines and nails for the coffin.
The bulldozer messed it up
Still only a handful go to mass on Sundays.
while making the feeder road into the
mountains to reach the hearts of the farmers. In the church the men talk, sleep; the children
play.
The farmers come down every Sunday
The priest is sad.
to sell their agony and their sweat for
Last night the storm came and blew away
a few pesos, lose in the cockpit or get drunk on
the way home. the cornflowers.

A steel bridge named after the congressman’s The cornfields are full of cries.
wife now spans the gray river where Tasyo,
Your cousin, Julia, has just become a whore.
the old goat had split the skin of our young
lizards She liked good clothes, good food, big money.

to make us a man many years ago. That’s why she became a whore.

The long blue hills where we Now our hometown has seven whores.

used to shoot birds with slingshot or spend the Pete, old friend,
summer afternoon.
every time we have a good reason to get drunk
we loved so much doing nothing in the tall grass and be carried home in a wheelbarrow,

we always remember you. Oh we miss

Remember us to your American wife,

you lucky bastard. I

slaw, your cock-eyed

uncle, now calls himself Stanley

after he began wearing the clothes you sent him

P.S. Tasyo, the old goat,

sends your lizard his warmest congratulations.