Poem: Earth of the Barrios

Earth of the Barrios

Child of Dirt fingers compact with clay takes

Your hand leads you through skin-hot city streets

Cracked concrete simmers under the sunset

Child of Dirt pulls you down into the soil

To see the roots of cacti spindly spears

Vanish like mirage to reveal snake-ropes

That clutch the red dust a gentle breath might

Just blow Child of Dirt to a new place and

There she will dig her feet into the ground

Wet and soft and sweet is the matter that

Squishes round her toes you are left behind

On the red sands of Puerto Penasco

Child of Dirt is now seeping herself in

Mud of Meiguo thick and sludge and alive

You are dry memory clutching dead roots.