Vamonos Porque Aqui Asustan

Artemio had made that
fateful trip back to Seguin,
and it’s true what they say,

the more things change
the more they stay the same.
At fifty-nine,

Artemio is still the same child of ten
holding his grandfather’s hand
in Normanna, Texas

where the gringo tells his grandfather,
“we don’t serve Mexicans here!”
so they drove on down the road

to buy hamburgers in another dusty town
where other gringos did serve Mexicans.
Now, as Artemio drives to Corpus Christi

to partake of the beaches,
he drives through the ghost town
which used to be Normanna.