My Seguin

Remember when Gaudalupe Street

ended just below Joe F. Saegert school

the drain pipe oozing into Walnut Creek

of course you don’t

you weren’t born yesterday

I was

and I’ll drag all those memories

around with me

until the day I die

and then my Seguin

the one that fills my head

will rise up into the sky

and come crashing back down

no one will hear it but me

and then it will be your Seguin

to do with what you will

In this incarnation, El Numbnuts was a heavy set Chicano living
in the Westside of San Antonio, in a house that belonged to
his abuela, his grandmother, who had lived long, long ago
in a galaxy far, far away.

Rosa's Birthday

in memory of Felix Sanchez

El Numbnuts girlfriend didn't have
long beautiful black hair
no beautiful eyes
and definitely no ears
on which to hang golden earrings
she had no voice
so yeah she couldn't
talk dirty and nasty in bed
yeah you guessed it
she had no mouth
and no beautiful nose
with which to breathe
no arms with which
to hold him tight at night
no beautiful thighs
to spread open wide
no spine to arch during sex
no beautiful ass
to let him climb
el Numbnuts girlfriend
didn't have long beautiful black hair
and today was not really her birthday

El Numbnuts Of The Westside

El Numbnuts was obese had bad knees
was nothing to sneeze at
otherwise he was unhealthy
a bad to the bone mojon
he had a way with words
that made you hurt
but he also had a soft side
his nalgas were flabby as hell
El Numbnuts lived
in the baddest barrio of them all
the mean streets of the Westside
where a look could get you killed
where no one had abuelas anymore
where the weak peed
when the strong decreed
but nobody ever messed with El Numbnuts