San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly

Christopher Luke Trevilla

San Cabrón del Barrio 6310

Abre los ojos!

A vision of a hobo screams down the driveway
in the midst of a pancaque fortress
concrete bunkers stacked upon another
with windows included
a place some people
for 700 dollars a month call home
while cars, cats, and conflict sounds
arise at restless night
while only drumming detectable at day

‘He went to war in his own mind’
the old folks and chismosos whisper into each other’s souls
they drink the gossip down with their café con leche
‘Here he comes again to scream at us some more’
the residents of 6310 say
while all of them go back inside
no one listens to but for a boy
a Sunday dreary morning day

On solitary white steps
cracked with time
filled with old dust and grime
serve as seating for the spectacle
this hairy, smelly, despondent, prophetic old cabron
draws near, too close
to the curiosity and wonder of a child
to the terror and wrath of a mother
before She has a chance to pounce to fetch her cub
the transient manages a smile

The boy transfixed upon his brow
so bereft of youth, vitality, and health
but overflowing with a true gozar de la vida
despite the emptied grin of missing teeth
the bumps and bruises mixed with dirt and oil on his skin
which only harsh time, cruel elements, and colder still, human apathy
do pay as wage for a life in constant want and rejection
‘Why the smile, why so happy, are you not hungry or sad?’
The youth sin miedo alguno manages to blurt out
before his mother, the eternal guardian, takes him by the neck
like a pup that strolled too far from the warmth of belly, fur, and teat
But a sudden laugh echoes into the concrete walls, into the sky
a kind of roaring thunder.
A child yet to be a man now carried off listens
for words that echo into his older years
himself now smellier, hairier, and weathered
He opens his mouth to speak:

Abre los ojos para vivir, cierralos para morir!
La risa y la lagrima la medicina, la vida el doctor!
Nadra le podra faltar a que no deja de querer y dar!
Alegre el Corazon!