para mima

thought of you today because of this headache
i know there are better times to think of the dead
than during caffeine withdrawals
but the most important thing you ever taught me
is that vick’s vapor rub cures everything

i rubbed it on my temples this morning
because of that summer
you chased me around your house
bare feet on the tile
oppressive caribbean heat
making it too difficult for me to run away

you’d catch up to me
in better shape than i was, even at eighty six
and smear my fourteen year old face with it
telling me it would clear up my skin
and help me find a husband

you’d rub it on my back if you heard me cough
and cover it up with a paper towel
so it wouldn’t get on what you said
was a too skimpy tank top

i was too scared of you
to tell you i sounded like that
because id been out late smoking
and not because i was catching a cold
dead in the middle of a dominican summer

a jar of it would sit on the credenza
next to where we ate
right by tio rafael’s picture
just in case anything went wrong on the trip
from the living room to the kitchen

for fear of getting it slathered on again
because i was thought to be sick, i’d eat
or else risk hearing for an hour
about how eating and scratching
are really the same thing:
all you have to do is start

you’d have me rub it on your aching muscles
while we watched telenovelas
and you explained to me that laura leon of mujeres enganadas
was not just an actress, but should be my role model

you slipped a mini jar of my own into my bag
when i left that year
with a note reminding me to go to church
and not kiss too many boys
and that vick’s cures everything

gracias, mima
headache’s gone now