30 Marzo: Red's up

Days & Days

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30 Marzo

I want to stay at the 
pink concrete stadium

I want to pay eight pesos 
for a ticket in shade 

or sun. I’m here for the man 
with the hand-lettered helmet.

For the one in palm tree
socks, a gold belt.

Sunday morning, mostly
empty. A little boy 

gets his diaper changed.
The old man in nice slacks

Unfolds his newspaper,
sits on a square. Red’s up.

Marmolejo swings 
three bats. It’s quiet 

as wind as birds I love
some people here. 



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27 Marzo

Adelitas are soldiers
41 is gay
Pancho Villa had a human head 
impaled on his saddle. Used to be: 
you got the saint’s name of the day 
that you were born. Then 
some people started naming 
babies Aniv de la Rev, 
anniversary of the revolution
Ceci's abuelita, when she heard 
horses’ hooves, she'd scream: 
the memories



.

25 Marzo

Magic little sandia boat, boat made of tin, 
it’s a steamboat when you put the candle in.

Burning now, across the public fountain,
the children take off their shoes and climb in.



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10 Marzo

An hour of pinch-hitting therapy over the phone, how kind
We find the world’s least-known candy shop, Franny & Fina
& me. It is in the entryway of an old woman’s top-of-the-callejón 
home. And she is the keeper of the world’s largest marshmallows.

A sketch I made this week of a building I often pass on my way to get a gordita.