The Black Hat Poet Welcomes Cecilio
Into Chicano Heaven

At that sweet time I was still alive
says the Black Hat Poet

as he recites his best poems,
now only remembered on the Westside

and the Southside, the Mexican Sasquatch
lives again, led around by the hand.

In these present times
he would find so much to ridicule,

“so many more things need fixin, mano,
so many things have gone unsaid.

I welcome you back my friend,
but I’m unsure of how you got here I tell him.

He sees the bewilderment in my face.
No, carnal, it is not me who needs

to be welcomed, says the Black Hat Poet,
it is you, bienvenido,

and he puts his arm around me---
the abrazo we know so well.”