spanish couple
the spanish couple in the bar
don’t seem to like my wife and i
because we are speaking english
because we are american
which i find funny
because those are two of the many reasons
that i also use for disliking people
oscar thinks that they do not like him
because he’s speaking english
to two americans in an irish pub in madrid
regardless, we can tell that they don’t like us
or that we are ruining their evening
with our wah-wah-wah american accents
they keep stopping their conversation
every so often to look our way
i can do nothing but smile and shrug back an apology
to the guy who looks like a soccer player
to the girl who looks like a famous mexican actress
and has her ass hanging out of the back of her jeans
they do not like us for sure
it may sound strange but i get a certain
satisfaction from not being liked
i feel like i’m on the right path
in our little race toward the grave
but the soccer player shifts anxiously
and glares over at us again
so does the replica mexican actress
before she gets up and heads across the bar
her little ass bobbing and swaying
as she takes a set of old, wooden steps
and i think that there will be no cozying up
amongst the group of us on this night
then a song comes on
it is an american song that i recognize from baseball games
where did you come from, where did you go
where did you come from, cotton-eye joe
i think that it must’ve been the girl who played it
when she sits down i stamp my feet to the song
raise my beer glass to the couple and wink at the girl
they look disgusted and get up to leave
as soon as they are gone
cotton-eye joe comes on a second time
i point at the jukebox
and tell oscar how funny it was
that she played that song for us
not once
but twice
he gives me a strange look and then he laughs
he tells me that machine is not a jukebox
but a cigarette dispenser
i can’t help but laugh
get up and buy us another round of beers
forever the stupid american
paying for his ignorance once again.
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