Karen Hildebrand
El Chapo Complains About the Conditions
It never gets dark in this cell.
The noise at dinner is deafening. It reeks
of Pine-Sol, windows rusted shut.
I don’t get a minute to myself,
plus WTF, nobody looks me in the eye.
The rents are so high even the rats
have jobs on Wall Street.
The bell tower, an incessant
peal of time. The coffee vendor
refuses to accept my cash. The bots
have got “Hamilton” by the short hairs.
The homeless hog all the free WiFi.
We are alone, the city asleep,
the night eternal over the dark sea.
Editor’s Note: The title of this poem refers to the headline of an article in The New York Times of April 24, 2017. The final couplet is paraphrased from Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel García Márquez (translated by Edith Grossman).
Karen Hildebrand’s recent poetry publications include, “Steve Bannon Visits the White House” (What Rough Beast, Indolent Books), “Benefits (in the voice of Kellyanne Conway)” (Maintenant 11, Three Rooms Press) and “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” (Portable Boog City Reader). “A History of Feminism,” forthcoming in great weather for MEDIA’s anthology, was a finalist for the 2017 Disquiet Literary Prize. In 2013, her work was adapted for the play, The Old In and Out, produced in NYC. She lives in Brooklyn and is chief content officer for Dance Magazine.
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