Bio
Gerardo Lamadrid Castillo is a poet from Caguas, Puerto Rico currently living in Hamilton, Ontario. They have a BA in English from Vassar College and an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Davis. They write in both English and Spanish, and their work has been featured in In Parentheses, Manzano Mountain Review and la Revista del ICP. Gerardo has also published the poetry collections Yendome and bocados.
Gerardo Lamadrid Castillo
Horseshoe Tavern Tears
You know I'm privileged because the saddest I've been
this week has been three Molsons in at a Tamino concert
in Toronto, crying thinking about how I had to show
my American passport to get into the Horseshoe Tavern
because of colonialism. The bouncer had to look at a picture
of me at 16 under a bald eagle under the words "United States
of America" to let me into a Canadian venue for a show
by an Egyptian-Belgian singer-songwriter and I'm not even American!
I swear! I know my English is good, but that's only because
my parents were middle-class enough to send me to a Catholic school
in Caguas, Puerto Rico from Pre-K thru 12th grade. And Hurricane
Fiona wrecked Puerto Rico this week. My parents don't have power.
My aunt doesn't have running water except for the foot of rain
flooding her bedroom. And this is the saddest I've been this week?
Actually, now that I think about it, that's not true—I've been sad all week.
I guess I just realized how sad I've actually been, and that's the saddest I can ever be.