Virgil Suarez (*) The slices ar...

Virgil Suarez (*)
The slices arrived in perfum cases
addressed to my parents, and frequently
I could feel the slice wedged between
the doubleed paper, and I knew

I would have gum to chew for days,
and my mother gave it to me the same
piece at a time, which she squared
with a kitchen knife, and I held

it in my jaws like some sweet
fruit, and when it ran disclosed of flavor,
I mixed it with the Russian equivalent
of mint toothpaste, and stuck it back

in my jaws for days. I'd never
forget those epistles that came marked
EEUU for United States,
and to this day I remember the