PAU L M A RT Í N E Z P OM PA

University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana

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© 2009 University of Notre Dame Press

Copyright © 2009 by Paul Martínez Pompa

Published by the University of Notre Dame Press

Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

www.undpress.nd.edu

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Martínez Pompa, Paul.

My kill adore him / Paul Martínez Pompa.

p. cm. — (Andrés Montoya poetry prize)

ISBN-13: 978-0-268-03518-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0-268-03518-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Political poetry, American. I. Title.

PS3613.A7869M9 2009

813'.6—dc22

2009022899

∞ The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and

durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for

Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

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© 2009 University of Notre Dame Press

I

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F ILM STR IP

We’ve been isolated from the girlsto learn our bodies. Our desks harder than our hairless asses. They shudder beneath us when Mr. Griffey fingers

the 16mm reel. He mumbles directions to himself, orders Danny S. to pull down the white screen. We swellinto concentration as grainy scenes

flicker past our heads. The projector’s clatter surrounds us like criminals:narrated cross-section of the testicles,the animated penis a cruel reminder

of our fathers. Strange men we’ve seenthrough cracked doors. Their nudebodies a revelation, a portrait of manhood larger than anything we could imagine.

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THE PERFORMER

I play it chingon in full length mirrors. Mad doggin’ my reflection—some kind of don’t fuck with me skin language. Rollin’ hard onsuburban boulevards. Scare

the white off kids, teachers shake their heads. Almost beggin’ for a beatdown. Toy gun real enoughto fear. Step to the mirror, pull out mywhat-chu gonna do now?

Pray he backs down, punks out.Everyone watchin’, the guntrembles in the mirror. Pistol whip.He goes down. All the kids cheermy head thick with e — g — o.

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