Caliente through the Baseboards

I.

Ay, Sounds like a warzone in the apartment upstairs, e'te tipo ta' enfogonao otra ve'  

and the babies are crying, que cabrón 

I can't hear the wife, who can blame her, why try to outshout un loco?

Ay, Sounds like a warzone upstairs, e'te tipo ta' enfogonao otra ve'  

The stomps and the silences, right above my head

The walls and floors are paper thin in this building but rent is cheap so I stay

Ay, Sounds like a warzone upstairs, e'te tipo ta' enfogonao otra ve' 

and the babies are crying, que cabrón 

II.

I wish he would shut the hell up

The guy upstairs who gets angry again and again 

Like the time months went by, months of silence, peace and quiet

I wish he would shut the hell up

Like when I wondered if he was at Jet Set, morbid thought, but I was wrong, he came back

Why does the world lose a voice like Rubby Pérez?

I wish he would shut the hell up

The guy upstairs who gets angry again and again 

III.

Color de Rosa / the song I play en loop when he gets angry and yells at all of us

Ese merengue caliente through the floor, caliente through the baseboards 

De color de rosa veo la vida hermosa y del amor estoy enamorado

Color de Rosa / the song I play en loop when he gets angry and yells at all of us

When the guy upstairs gets angry, I play my Color de Rosa marathon FULL BLAST

de color de rosa ... /After I shut the music, all's quiet on the upstairs front after

Color de Rosa / the song I play en loop when he gets angry and yells at all of us

Ese merengue caliente through the floor, caliente through the baseboards 

pilot light

we used to go dancing, 

casual, not an event.

I could kiss any stranger 

I wanted to 

for a time.

tonight after dinner

with straight friends

our talk of problems 

without clever solutions or clear ends,

of actual life and actual death,

I went out

alone in my boots

pocket full of advil,

face full of 

my actual age

and sang into the mouth of a 

person I would not kiss.

I did not want to kiss any

of the twenty somethings

I danced with, actually.

champagne animals

tossing ourselves 

in and out of time.

no one to stop me

from living again.