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# Two Poems by Sheila Maldonado
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/two-poems-by-sheila-maldonado/
- Published: 2014-06-04T14:26:31.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:44:19.000Z
- Description: Our poetry editor, Joe Pan, has selected two poems by Sheila Maldonado for his series that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers.
- Author: Joe Pan
- Tags: Poetry, Hyperallergic Poetry, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:03 (2014, 2015, part 1)

*Our poetry editor, Joe Pan, has selected two poems by Sheila Maldonado for his* [*series*](http://hyperallergic.com/tag/hyperallergic-poetry/) *that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers.*

\* \* \*

![fabromain](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/06/fabromain.jpg)

Luciano Fabro, “La doppia faccia del cielo” (1986) (image via Wikimedia)

## Poet in a Shade of Jade

I am so jealous of how poor you are  
of how you are poor  
your particular stilo pobre  
The way you put no cash and  
no money together is uncanny  
This aesthetic  
lack of change combined  
with lack of dollars  
is very difficult to duplicate  
and I hate you for that

I was gonna go hear you read  
from your new collection of  
unpaid bills  
just the other day  
but you get readings  
all the time  
you have your pick  
of not being paid  
or being unpaid  
You get to ride  
the subway back and forth  
on your own dime  
and you pay for  
your performance alcohol

I’ll make it one of these days  
give you dirty looks  
as you read and rake in  
your air bucks

What I look forward to most  
is not tolerating  
how you hoard your poverty  
tell no one your secret  
you must have some malefactor  
mentor  
mentiroso  
who further mystifies  
the acquisition of wealth  
and points you in the direction  
of the dead end

## Submit / Resist

submit to the line of students as questions  
resist their tall tales  
submit to the stage of the classroom  
resist the despair of unpreparedness  
the blank stares blank papers  
submit to the penal scholastic  
resist the hourly rage  
submit timesheet essay humility  
resist the conspiratorial bank  
remit subsist  
submit to the clutch of the breast  
resist the song of the uterus  
submit to the will of the crotch  
to the ass jet to the bike seat  
resist memory failure humidity  
submit to the one breeze  
resist gerunds  
submit to the peripathetic  
resist the howl of the building don  
submit to the raindrops on the air conditioner  
resist the caffeine tremor  
submit to the sweat lodge  
resist the butter cookie  
submit to the butter cookie  
resist the baby squeal behind the neighbor door  
submit to architecture and its facades  
resist gatekeepers  
submit to disorientation  
to starting over and again

 **\* \* \***

[Sheila Maldonado](http://www.sheilamaldonado.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) is the author of *one-bedroom solo* (Fly by Night Press, 2011), her debut poetry collection. Her poems have appeared in *Rattapallax*, *Callaloo* and *Me No Habla with Acento: Contemporary Latino Poetry*. Maldonado holds degrees in English from Brown University and poetry from the City College of New York. She teaches creative writing for the City University of New York and Teacher & Writers Collaborative.