All You Need For A Party

Mami always said

you only need some soda

and a radio

for a party

You see

there’s something magical

some alchemy

about that recipe

Somehow it conjured

potfuls of rice and beans

and plastic table covers

and tía Orfelia with a cooler full of tamales

and tía Noris with a duffel of pasteles en hoja

and Marita with a box from the French bakery

the three almost-sisters bounding across boroughs

even a primo in a tuxedo

to finesse the dust out the super lintendo

eight sets of hands for two controllers

a cramped apartment,

cleaner for a day than the ones on sitcoms

a handful of living room salseros and merengueros

three-seater sofas burdened

with more than three-seater tíos

trapped

under plates

trapped

under mounds of rice

rendered useless

You see

mami always said

you only need some soda

and a radio

for a party

magic

alchemy

But those with the gift

seldom share its contours

with the unworthy

our mamis

were the magic

and it was wasted on us

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