Barrio Secrets

Only abuela knew my secrets
the open casket

it is still us
like fallen leaves in the barrio

my guilty face
on each of those brown leaves

my school-girl sister
in the gray jeep of the sky

my brothers
log-jammed on an LA freeway

my indio father
pasted against the mountains

I push hard on the boulder
to get it off my tongue

my toothless abuela sits in the house
like a lump of coal

my hair crowns the barrio
with its shaft of light

and any moment now
time could begin

Fourth Street Flashback

My aunt forces me to play Mexican bingo

in my underwear

my little nuts cold against the wooden floor

embarrassed by La Dama

El borrachito makes fun of me

the mermaid's top distracts me

as I put a pinto bean

on Las Jaras

when I complain that

I don't want to play anymore

my aunt beats me

with a wire coathanger

I run up and down the gravel street

oh the joys of growing up

So Trump is sending 1,500 troops to defend the Alamo from the caravan, history will probably repeat itself.