<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div><div class="c-feature-hd" style="margin: 0px 0px 9px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h1 class="c-hdgSans c-hdgSans_2 c-mix-hdgSans_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; line-height: 1.231; font-weight: normal;"><font size="4">The Contract Says: We'd Like the Conversation to be Bilingual</font></h1></div><div class="c-feature-sub c-feature-sub_vast" style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font><br></font></div></div><div class="c-feature-bd" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.3;"><div class="o-poem isActive" data-view="PoemView" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>When you come, bring your brown-<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>ness so we can be sure to please<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font> <br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>the funders. Will you check this<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>box; we’re applying for a grant.<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font> <br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>Do you have any poems that speak<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>to troubled teens? Bilingual is best.<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font> <br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>Would you like to come to dinner<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>with the patrons and sip Patrón?<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font> <br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>Will you tell us the stories that make<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>us uncomfortable, but not complicit?<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font> <br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>Don’t read the one where you<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>are just like us. Born to a green house,<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font> <br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>garden, don’t tell us how you picked<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>tomatoes and ate them in the dirt<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font> <br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>watching vultures pick apart another<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>bird’s bones in the road. Tell us the one<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font> <br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>about your father stealing hubcaps<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>after a colleague said that’s what his<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font> <br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>kind did. Tell us how he came<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>to the meeting wearing a poncho<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font> <br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>and tried to sell the man his hubcaps<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>back. Don’t mention your father<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font> <br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>was a teacher, spoke English, loved<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>making beer, loved baseball, tell us<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font> <br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>again about the poncho, the hubcaps,<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>how he stole them, how he did the thing<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font> <br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font>he was trying to prove he didn’t do. </font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font><br></font></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><font><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Ada Límon</font></div></div></div></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></body></html>