The difference between       a 10-thread count toalla       and a calculator       is that with one

se calcula        and with the other      seca el culo      yet, it’s not the same with disco-culia

as a month’s only thirteen days       enough time for a $60/hr math tutor       to sit in the basement of a moldy New England library       and pronounce 71,565       not as seventy-one-hundred-five

$656 is my weekly unemployment check       if only I solved x harder in Pre Calc       or spent less time staring at the TV       where George Lopez made me think dyslexia was for Mexicans

which explained quite a bit       why Aunt Isabel couldn’t use the family credit card anymore       why El Charro shut down after serving the best damn mole in all of New York       where Dad

got the idea he wasn’t smart from       and ended the cycle there with $82,000 (eighty-thousand- two) four times       since all I needed was a degree    to make the numbers mop stoving