Meter Monday - "La Tigresa"
Skyscrapers pierce the watercolor canvas
Revealing cotton gashes,
Shades lighter than those on my jersey
Amarillo azul y rojo
Tattooed on my torso
A soccer ball emblazoned above my heart--
Rivers of unabashed pride flowing
between its pentagonal landforms
The ruckus of colonization and imperialism
is drowned out by la gloria del himno nacional
Coursing through my veins,
Vessels serving as speakers, home of
Fresh blood, oxygenated by el patriotismo,
the purity of its redness obscured
by the crimson of the flag--
The ablution of the cracked blood
shed by guerrilla warfare and
sly landmines in the land of mine,
sheltered within the forestry of la madre patria--
the highest act of treason.
The cleats of James send
turf and coke powder flying,
lost in the chaos of sport and cartel-smeared history
Every sadistic rendezvous
between la selección and the goal
is a battle in the post-conflict war to
rejuvenate Colombia’s reputation
And I am at the frontline, leading
my troops to victory against chauvinism
...pero mi orgullo no es una invitación para
unwanted male advances
The dulce de leche that covers
the Spanish tongue turns
stale and bitter, crackling in my ears
Using the language my ancestors
planted on my lips,
both by native speakers and appropriating imposters,
to culturally objectify me
bleaches my colors away
The blades of los piropos
tear open my jersey
Exposing my naked body--
Robbed of its ethnic and feminine jubilo inmortal…
Pero yo soy colombiana y usted señor,
latino, anglo-americano, africano, árabé, asiático,
NUNCA ME LO QUITARÁ
You want to stifle my amour-propre
Strangle me with a piece of cloth you’ve devalued
But I don’t need the oxygen
released by the city’s parks
My lungs run on nacionalismo
So asphyxiate me all you want,
Your culturally sexualizing words,
Clogging up my esophagus go unnoticed
Because you see, I have
la selección’s defense with me--NO
I have la selección’s offense with me
And I am the striker
El Tigre brings out La Tigresa in me
I am marked by tri-colored stripes,
Painted by a southern permanent marker on my flesh,
Limbs ending with claws--
a metamorphosis from prey to predator--
In this concrete jungle
Y yo soy la Reina.