/train/track/ling/

the sign tells me             danger
                                         keep off these                                      tracks
                                         seventy four and mostly cloudy
                            the blue line is due,                                  her sober voice
                            screeches upon the wind in all patient ones’ virtue.
arguably, the                     seconds              quite precious on daily
excursions amount to a                 lifetime                 of books                    read
                                                                      and poems,                            likely well-written.
yet, my mind is flooding with ambition
for futures drawing nearer with caution;
of Meadows and Hearts, bursting open
at the sight of what was lost being found,
of an ancestry come to fruition                                                   through one girl,
                                                                                         who leaned in and listened; they
told her                                         gently
to mend and
to write and
to watch for the signs
                                                  of the blue line approaching, towards O’Hare

.

gather close, corazones fronterizos

when hearts dance blood into crevices,
I’ll sneak another spoonful of sugar into your coffee
on account of how we swoon the sun with laughter
just enough to taste, por supuesto

in this classroom that was made to corner gossip
             no spanish
                             no mames
             no spanish!!
                           seeping its villain tendency through clothes and lashes

pero past the emerald green hills
I saw every flicker between kaleidoscopic song
concluding: intangible lyric makes it
impossible to write about our people

                            spoken in warm foods and hellish words

so sleepwalk and attend to men and
to man’s narcotic worry—sour though fruitful—
well aware of the soul’s fated failure
to let go of laces woven, knots in time

and buy every last of those gone-bad apples
in preparation for doom, while my necklace glazed in gold

                            is meticulously tuned to strangle and cuddle

and in the end, when lungs decay efficiently
bleached blues and prickly pear
pink wax will dribble onto carpet,
while we threaten their flame once more

.

Where’s mamacita Malinche?

New Mexican
nuevomexicana
Nueva Mexicana

                                                                 debut

            Welcome to the land of
            cleaning up

                                                                after

piñon
cedar
juniper
hickory
fir balsa

            firm bosom

                                                                as a señorita,

preparate,

Morra
Nena
Mijita
Chiquitita
Malcriada

            created                          poorly

            mal                                              creada

           a parade saddle decorated
           with silver medallions
           depicting the Eagle and Snake

doesn’t it sound
like a
desmadre?

               This                                          madre

              possibly mythical
              Motherland Aztlan is
              seen as
              the American Southwest

con un price tag
that can’t be beat,

                                                                too bad, she’s breaking

Desolation
begins to

                                                                eat its way digest you,

as tension crackles
on a blackening spoon
like a pixelated TV
saying

             This is your brain on drugs
             and your brain must be on drugs
             to survive this Desert

creating

                                                                adelitas
              artists

in the way
that they
mop the floors

              shy away from
              seeing a doctor
              because they’re                      afraid of

[in scene]
ranch bell
wheelbarrow
thatcher dairy can
whirligig
wheelbarrow named after a daughter

Mexican interpreter
                           began with
                           woman’s betrayal

of Her people.

                                                                 twisted

herself into the bridge

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