poem of the day 06.14.11

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.