PUNISHMENT

Instead of the good social position

I wished for, suddenly I’m a prisoner.

The angry police chief

delivers me to a school

where he informs me

that by order

of the president

of El Salvador,

I must stay off the streets

and serve my sentence

by teaching grammar.

Estoy perdido.

I’m lost.

For how long will I have to recite

memorized rules, instead of writing

my own free truths?