This Side Of The Westside

I loved you for your mind back then
though probably in the hindquarters of my head

I relished the parting of thighs---
you with your poetry of and for the barrio,

junior high school girls, El Bennie’s exploits,
the old ladies, the abuelitas.

The present is so different from the past.
We’ve come full circle yet once more,

and I love you for your mind again,
but my reptilian brain has you cornered with its tongue

and the hot San Antonio sun bounces off my hide
as I run behind a Mexican bakery on Zarzamora St.