Get Lit Minute

Willie Perdomo | “Bad Habits”

September 14, 2021 Get Lit - Words Ignite Season 3 Episode 20
Get Lit Minute
Willie Perdomo | “Bad Habits”
Show Notes

In this week's episode of the Get Lit Minute, your weekly poetry podcast, we spotlight Puerto Rican writer, Wille Perdomo. He is the author of The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon (Penguin Poets, 2014), a National Book Critics Circle Awards finalist, Where a Nickel Costs a Dime (W. W. Norton & Company, a Poetry Society of America Norma Farber First Book Award finalist, 1996),[1] Postcards of El Barrio (Isla Negra Press, 2002), and Smoking Lovely (Rattapallax Press, 2003),[2] which received a PEN Beyond Margins Award.[3] His children's book, Visiting Langston, received the Coretta Scott King Honor. Perdomo was also the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellowship in 2001 and 2009.

“Bad Habits”
 
Petey liked to twist the right end of his mustache when he was

   listening for updates. (Y’all remember Petey. He was always

   on that chuck chill-out tip, but most days he didn’t get

   to choose.)

 

When he ignited a squabble, Chuna would slap his right thigh to

   get every syllable out with a violent scansion.

 

Tommy Lee threw rocks at unsuspecting pigeons.

 

Dwight kept his right hand tucked into the crotch of his Lees,

   steady stunting on some bollo.

 

Angel bit his tongue when he wanted to ask a question.

 

Max counted his money and his money counted him.

 

Brother Lo liked to whistle “All the Things You Are” when it

   rained that Puerto Rico rain.

 

Chee-wa’s nose used to break out into an anxious table of

   contents when he was skied up.

 

Papu would dance if he wanted to make a point. So, imagine

   him saying, Nah, nah, nah, fuck that shit, and poppin’ &

   lockin’ on every word.

 

Nestor hated the words Stop, I was only playing.

 

Loco Tommy blinked three times, convulsively, and then tapped

   the right side of his face against his right shoulder blade.

 

Jujo spit and spit and spit and spit.

 

Popeye had a villainous laugh.

 

Dre loved to crash revivals.

 

Chino Chan did back handsprings from sewer to sewer

   whenever he received good news.

 

Georgie could scratch his ankle straight through a

   graveyard shift.

 

The first thing out of Skinicky’s mouth was always a feeling.



Learn more about Perdomo and read the full poem "Bad Habits" via our Get Lit Anthology


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