What is the childhood of a poet like?
Bookless. I don’t remember a lot books—besides the Bible and various magazines—in our house. Reading was something I did at school. * I grew up with two younger siblings: Higinio and Mireya. One of our favorite things to do as children was to build clubhouses. We built indoor and outdoor clubhouses using items like bed sheets, wood planks, and plastic laundry baskets. We built our clubhouses with pride. But our endeavors always ended the same way. After we’d built our clubhouse we would sit inside it, glance at each other, and simultaneously shout out BORING. The joy for us was in the building. * As a child I adored the Smurfs. My siblings and I used to get up each Saturday morning to watch the Smurfs cartoon. I don’t know why I was so drawn to them. I want to say the Smurfs’ homosocial environment appealed to the inner queer in me, but that would be stretching it. I remember making up my own Smurf stories before I went to sleep. These stories always included my favorite Smurfs—Hefty,
