Doña Julia
Committed suicide last night
Cause the welfare department
Demanded too many documents she did not
Know existed.
The utilities were removed.
The landlord proudly gave her eviction
Papers.
The friendly bodega accused her of trespassing.
Holding on to hope,
Doña Julia visited Puerto Rican leaders
With fancy titles,
Promising her things that never arrived.
Doña Julia
Always made it a point to vote
With the democrats, the party of
The poor, she used to say.
Doña Julia
Committed suicide last night cause life was angry with her,
She told her spirits.
And the people that didn’t
Know her always found things to say about her,
With fancy titles.
Her daughter Evelyn disappeared with this
Dude named Hector who promised her every thing he didn’t have.
And her son Josè,
Who dropped out of school at the age of ten,
Always took money from Doña Julia
To pay his expenses and other things for the dead head.
He too disappeared looking for his friends who were never around
When he didn’t have anything.
Doña Julia
Committed suicide cause life was angry with her.
Her dead face had a smile that police officers did not understand.
Someone that did not know how to read found a note
And flushed it down the toilet thinking it had something
To do with the numbers.
The note said something about
“One way or the other, I’m going back to Puerto Rico.”