Big Red Nebraska Sharks

Back in the Fifties
Artemio’s old third grade teecher
Miss McMurdock always told us mexicans

“never capitalize mexican!”
Artemio was too young to understand,
went on and procreated,

remained unaware till now.
It seems one day his daughter
showed her mother a book of poems

she was reading. She was writing poetry, too,
and she told her mother
she liked the way this poet wrote.

After agonizing weeks,
Candy finally told her daughter
that the poet she admired so much

was actually her father. He’s your father.
Her daughter was excited and stunned,
and that’s how she ended up

on Artemio’s doorstep.
The maelstrom of modicum
upon her shy face,

fracturing Artemio in half.
Grandchildren circled the old man
like shark fins.