Americanos

Poor Americans in the Louisiana night
English tourists robbed in Copacabana
The street kids still think they were Americans
Spanish tourists mistakenly arrested in Flamengo Park
Rich Americans no longer stroll through Havana
American faggots bring the AIDS virus
To Rio during carnival
Organized faggots from San Francisco manage
To control the spread of the disease
Only a potential genocider
- in a cassock, a tie, or an apron -
Can pretend not to see that the faggots
- having been the preferred victim group -
Are in the position to lead the movement
To stop the spread of HIV
Americans are very statistical
They have clear gestures and clean smiles
Eyes with penetrating brightness that go deep
Into what they look at, but not into their own depths
Americans represent a good part
Of the existing joy in this world
For Americans, white is white, black is black
(And the mulatto is not the one)
Faggot is faggot, male is male
Woman is woman and money is money
And so rights are won, bargained, lost
Granted, conquered
While down here, uncertainty is the regime
And we dance with a grace whose secret
I don't even know
Between delight and disaster
Between the monstrous and the sublime
Americans are not Americans
They are old human men
Arriving, passing, crossing
They are typically American
Americans feel that something is lost
Something is broken, is breaking