In Pasadena

Midnight once he stood me
  by the door of our refrigerator
   open, like a wedge of cheese in darkness,

a milk glass in my hand,
  he yelled, he cursed at me
   why would I do something for my mother

and not for him, why damn it not
  just take the goddamned pill,
   swallow the leather seed of it dissolving

slow against my uvula, the hard
  edging off to chalk and choke.
   What was in his mind, he knew so little

what went on in our apartment, …

Sneaking Your Dead Body into Mexico | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Sneaking Your Dead Body into Mexico

 

             Mexico lindo y querido, muero lejos de ti, que digan que estoy

             dormido, y que me traigan aqui.

                     —song by Jorge Negrete

 

Let the sky flip and shake …

Notes from El Valle Megamart | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Notes from El Valle Megamart

 

1.
Sister Juanita buys cherry flavored
Lip gloss for the girls
Apple bubble gum for the boys
The lord’s prayer
Smells like a fruit stand
Under the summer sun
Across …

Arrival | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Arrival

 

      By throat is how we arrived

      A cradle in voice

      A passion & command

 
      By hands is how we arrived

      A touch

      Skin rising, cringing,

      Churning of a …

| Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Flashes

 

       Very soon, and in pleasant company.
                —Chinese fortune

    In a race for a tree, one Mexican soccer player almost beat the rain,
only to be met at the …

The Palm Tree Piñata | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

The Palm Tree Piñata

 

I’m smacking around a piñata shaped like a palm tree. It is southern California, mid-summer. The palm tree piñata is swinging back-and-forth beneath the bright summer sun. It is my …