When this book came out, in 2012,
I sent a box home to my parents, and my nieces and nephews
in Casa Grande, Arizona, about an hour
away where I was born and raised.
In my email, my youngest nephew, Oscar, eight, send me
a little text message, can I take this book
to show and tell?
No, I say.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Let me send you JPEG of the cover image
and you could take that to show and tell.
[LAUGHTER]
No.
Adults only, I said.
The next poem is titled "Watermark."
In this poem, I steal a couple of phrases
from the Gwendolyn Brooks poem, "A Boy Breaking "Glass.
And I also repeat the word "socorro," again and again
in this poem.
In Spanish, socorro, when called out urgently,
becomes a call for help, and also
happens to be my mother's name.
You see what I did there?
[LAUGHTER]
MFA, right here.
[LAUGHTER]
"Watermark."
"In the dark, only the devil can cast a shadow.
Too poor to afford lilies, she walked down the aisle
holding a glass of milk.
Her left breast is nicknamed Juan, the right Diego.
Nightly, she catches moths with newspaper cones--
hammocks skipper, southern emerald.
Lungs black with cancer, her father
was buried two months before the wedding.
Her name, a tassel in my mouth.
Socorro, Socorro.
Rain pierced her womb when she was six months pregnant.
Rain singed the face of her child,
the burn marks turning into beauty marks.
A beautiful flaw, terrible ornament.
I keep a spur under my pillow to ward off nightmares.
Too poor to afford lace, she walked down
the aisle on a cold afternoon, her breath a veil.
She arranges moth wings on a table,
reads the wings like tarot cards--
nine of swords, knight of coins.
Her mouth waters when she hears a bolero.
Her father was buried in pleated pants.
Day after day she folds and folds paper, alas, faros.
She gave me a pack of cigarettes on my 13th birthday.
Often, I put on the gold ring she leaves by the sink.
Not cathedrals, but presents.
The first man she saw naked was the rain.
The dark of her knees a watermark.
Socorro, Socorro.
If I dream I'm cupping her face with my hands,
I wake up holding the skull of a wolf."