Facebook Friend Naomi, your name is above mine in the cast of West Side Story.
I played Action and only you know what role was yours if only you can remember. After my head injuries at NYU, I found memories in storage boxes. I found a playbill. I remember remarking how strange it was for us to play The Jets, a gang out to get the Puerto Ricans when most of us have parents from Puerto Rico. The observation amused Carlos Carrasco, our teacher, as it did our classmates. My insight became like a grain of sand irritating an oyster into producing a pearl. The day before opening night, I wrote a poem to tag on our student show. Carlos said it was too late to rehearse. Instead, he gave blessing to my refusal to yield vision.
I was on my own. My poem was about a boy who never knew his father because of an illegal handgun. It was about being the only son of Tony and Maria. It was about being half American and half Puerto Rican. I wanted to pull the hyphen out of Ame-Rican like a painful thorn in a lion’s paw from an ancient fable for children of all ages. If I can bring words together, I’ll have the best of both worlds. I’ll be home, I quietly said as bright lights dimmed to dark. Heaven happened on Earth when the audience roared with a standing ovation.
Far from motivated to write for wild applause, I was humbled to be able to pull out many thorns. It was awesome to see high spirits leave the borders of their faces. Outside the theater, playbills held high in starry summer evening fluttered like doves. “It’s your night,” shouted Carlos. It was everyone’s night. And this is how a Jet joined The Jedi Order. 
Wow. What a great memory to recover. We were the first students to use Miriam Colon’s renovated Firehouse Theater. As goes a slogan for The New York Library, know the past. Find the future. By the by, I transferred a gem of a keepsake into your account for you to recover. Ciao, Naomi. Be well.Sincerely yours, The Puerto Rican Of The Opera. LOL!
Novelty by Daniel Angel Aponte Copyrighted 2012
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