Immigrant crossing

Made shadows by a dusty yellow 

 

The beer bottles 

shattering on the floor,

the cigarette smoke 

seeping into their rags,

What is it exactly that 

 

Perhaps they flee from

the father who set

their mother on fire; 

perhaps they flee from

the man in green 

 

My headlights barely

 

Driving forward 

I leave the faded blue house

Where the tick, tick, tick

signaled the march of ants,

where claws picked up crumbs 

and antennas sifted through

rotten fruit. 

 

My foot 

 

I should stop,

call my parents, 

 

Her sleepy voice

saying hello, hello,

 

 

 

to the dirty mouthpiece. 

 

But I keep driving, 

look up at the sky

undulating in its silence. 

 

There I see myself 

a child sleeping under

a car, longing for the shore 

 

Shhhhhhhh

 

 

 

recede to the

dark blue.

 

My hands grip the wheel. 

Minutes, hours pass

drifting from lane to lane, 

 

The car has stopped

I wander along the road.

My feet press against the asphalt, 

bleed onto the street.

In the dark, my blood 

 

I see a yellow shell.

Open 24 hours,

$2.68 for regular.   

 

The heavy stench of gasoline 

burns my nostrils. The old man’s

rocking chair waits in the front. 

The flies buzz in the outhouse.

The lights are off. 

 

Ave Maria madre de Dios

Reza por nosotros pecadores

 

My mother kneels at a distance, 

candle lit in front of her.

Its flickering writes the prayer   

 

Before I can

say a word she is engulfed

in a blue flame. 

 

I witness her 

Melting into monkeys,

swans, dogs…

 

I wake 

heat pressing against

my body. The steering wheel 

 

The man in green knocks

On my window asking

Me to Step out of the car sir. 

 

The desert crossed, the memory

incinerated, the life stamped

PROHIBIDO** 

 

What is that we 

 

 

*Our mother who art in heaven, pray for us sinners.

**prohibited