La Gorda

Photo of a woman vacuuming.Help me move this dresser to clean behind it.

Why? No one’s gonna see back there.

She looked at me like I had three heads.

No one’s gonna see your ass, but you still wash it, right?

I was seven. Her anger, a flashbang. I braced for the beating. Behind us, the TV reported another child abduction and murder in Hialeah.

If someone grabs you, you yell and scratch his face, dig your fingers into his eyes like nails.

She painfully got down on one knee. Eye-to-eye: And squeeze his nuts. She mimed the action, her hand holding the world.

Nick Mansito is the author of Miscellaneous Debris and 3rd & 7th. He is an Assistant Professor of English at Chattanooga State Community College.

Photo Credit: Nicola Albertini

2 Responses to “La Gorda”

  1. MB says:

    Powerful, clear, concise. I can feel her fear and anger. Not at the child but circumstances. Parental fear can be overwhelming and comes out of no where. That child is her world.

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