.................................
Rough Traveling
.................................

Lupe and I skip eighth period.
We hide beneath shacks. Wait for bells to ring.
Mr. Duncan never looks for us.
We cut across football fields, jump over barbwire
Fences. Our bodies brown and strong,
Chests heaving like red balloons.

We smash bottles against walls of old
Tire factories. Echoes of glass and
Victory ring throughout the sky. We are
Brothers who want out, a place of our own.
We talk nonsense: Metallica and quinceaneras,
Of green valleys across the border, of Erica's breasts,
Staring at us.

Until train horns, bursts in our chests,
Pounding our cheeks, our ears detecting opportunity.
We run towards tracks, eager to greet
The iron bull that stampedes through streets.
Like cowboys, we wait for perfect moments.
Grins cutting across faces, whiteness
Of palms becoming red. We wait.
"Ya! Lo agarramos!" Lupe's mouth; a trumpet of war.

Charging trains, placing our feet
On platforms, dangling from bars
We ride through neighborhoods like birds.
Past amazed crowds that line streets
like blurred photographs in rain.
We blow kisses to mamasitas who wear
Red-skirts and blue-eye shadow.
Eyes closed, I dream of endless train rides,
Taking us deep into the horizon
Until Lupe and I are no more.

 
.................................
Cecillia's Mouth
.................................

"Tienen agua frescas"
I ask the waitress
whose lips seared
into my memory
Coming late at night
with friends,
drunk and high,
our stomachs craved
a jukebox that moaned
Selena and Los Titos
Our eyes grieved
a mural of Monterrey
on one side of the room
Her mouth now,
an aging oval of
lipstick and smiles
while gliding from table
to table in sad, quietness
No longer the sleek
swift cat of youth
that penciled its
name across my
adolescent chest
She's grown weary
from being trapped
somewhere in the walls
of a dream
But in her dull, brown
dress I can hear
the most intrusive sound
blaring from her heart-shaped
mouth, forming the history
of a long and dusty road

 
.................................
The Stray Dog
.................................

The clock glowing 3:15
Claudia at the window sill staring into driveway
Blurred heat rising from asphalt