Totem Recall: Murals For Myself In The South Bronx Of Admerica

 Your mother is retarded, her husband told me as he started his car in The South Bronx.

I was a 10-year old stunned by an adult that made a remark like a bully in a schoolyard.

I looked out the window to see abandoned buildings and Swastikas on a gang with Doberman Pinchers dissolve to a supermarket in a better house and garden neighborhood of The Brady Bunch as seen on TV.

He was doing the shopping because she couldn’t work within budget.

He needed to save money for his 3-week vacation with his mistress in Puerto Rico.

He left us every summer. And I went where he wouldn’t let me travel beyond Star Trek.

Here’s Johnny.

Ketchup On Love

Chapter 6 By

Daniel Angel Aponte