The Ofi Press Magazine

By Fernando Bonilla Alguera, Mexico (Published in Issue 8)

Me and Power

Me and power have a complicated relationship.

I always wanted to ride it like a horse in a spring afternoon.

Power created me and nursed me.

Power killed many people all around;

People that survived wanted power

After mourning their dead.

Power finds me naked in the morning

And dressed for battle at night.

Power chases me along the streets of this city.

It wants to rip my head off and teach me a lesson.

Power wants me to beg for it,

To die for it.

Power abuses child soldiers,

Power rapes women during war,

Power burns villages and leaves no ashes the next morning.

Power finds its own way, always, it can swim across oceans

And spill through gutters.

It can take an old man and steal his illusions,

It can drive him desperate enough to contract a disease

Just to get cash transfers from those in power.

Power permeates through the tears of the marginalized.

Power painted a smile on a Nazi soldier

While whipping naked skin, making soap, and forging iron.

Power was there the day I was born.

It looked to me in the eyes and told me:

I will never leave you alone,

There is no place you can go to escape from me

And there is no way you can build a ladder out of the hole

I started to dig before you knew me.

I am power, I chastise the weakened bodies by the famines,

I dig the holes for the landmines; I build the bullets for the guns

And I can also negotiate surrenders.

I am power, my hands move everything

But never get dirty.

I am power, my weapons are elegant and objects of desire.

I am power, the night is in my bed

And I have no intentions to love her

Or respect her.

Fernando Bonilla was born in Mexico City, 1982. Economist. Laughing in a perfect way is his life goal. His ex girlfriend said he could spend years discussing Banksy, Nietzsche, Bukowski, Marx, and the eradication of poverty. He loves stories about underdogs and antiheroes. He also enjoys running, art, and travelling.