The boy who was born upside down by Carlos León

The poetry professor was not very impressed with my husband’s taste in poetry. Ultimately, he came to respect mine when I brought in a poem by Jack Hirshman that genuinely moved him. The only one. He’d say he was not the only hunter who believed in forest conservation. He’d met maybe two others. He invited us to his house one evening to dine on his most recently shot bevy of quail. “Welcome to the saloon,” he handed my husband a glass of Laphroaig whiskey. “It tastes like armpit sweat but of the very best kind.”

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The boy who was born upside down

poetry by Carlos León

The day I was born I didn’t come out right They had to slit my mother in half For since the beginning I’ve been doing things wrong Even at the uterus I was standing upside down

Once a year they sing to me “el día que tú naciste, nacieron todas las flores” But I know they are lying, It was probably pouring As it has on all my birthdays.

I was neither the eldest nor the youngest son Nor the fresh meat nor the wise man

But somewhere in-between both

Wherever all the middles grow, And bloom, and stumble, and flow

As an infant I didn’t crawl through the floor I dragged my belly across the ceiling And growing up I didn’t try to reach the frame of the door But I jumped, trying to get my fingers to reach the floor In my youth I felt more alone with my friends Than I did when I wasn't with them

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I’ve always learned in reverse And chose to walk the wrong roads I sometimes cry at funny movies When the goofy character gets hurt And I have trouble sleeping Unless it’s through the days

What am I?

Depends on the day you ask I am either nothing Or all the things I shouldn’t have

Somedays I don’t feel like I'm alive But I surely don’t believe I’m dead I'm only existing, not dying nor living Most days I’m not exactly unhappy But rather melancholic

Nor am I ever enough Just about hands-reach close

And I don’t think this will ever stop

I will never change but I won’t stop trying Nor can I stop trying For this struggling is all I know Nor do I want it to change For the day I don't have to be trying I will also be dying

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