Houston,
TX/Remembering Aztlan
God's
country is more oil dry than ever now
and swamp mosquitoes are the only ones making withdrawals
looking for another J.R. with the face of a dynasty
because earth itself is on strike
demanding fair treatment in the shadow of some environmental
law
alongside Chicanos whose faces are black and blue pinatas
under the nightsticks of tall Texas Rangers celebrating
Octoberfest
with a bust and the same blonde ambition used to colonize
this Mexico that never belonged to Sam Houston and his
republic
but cultural amnesia runs so deep in these here parts
that a border was erected to mark the booty as capital
gain
and
if you remember the Alamo
and repeat the national anthem enough times
and make it mandatory like a school prayer to the one
god we trust
then
the nation will continue to expand
but the cost of building on blood can bring the memory
back
and swallow the facade that passes for truth
when a dark-faced patriot and his compadres, comadres
and earth brown baby rebels question who owns the land
in Spanish, English, and the tongue of things yet to
come.
