Joseph Rios
Field Guide: Calwa #2
The steel wheeled train cars sing like a crystal flute
of champagne accompanied by the bass held hostage
in the trunk of this murdered out Buick.
The kids’ jungle gym is a broke down Altima
that became a memorial to the neighbor’s grandpa
who got shot while changing the timing belt.
How will posterity explain the endless tumbleweeds
of empty Hot Cheeto Bags?
I took out a chunk of the driveway with a sledgehammer
and thought of my dad’s father, drunk, tripping
off these steps and smashing his head in the same spot.
Do the hummingbirds ever see me and think I’m the spirit
of someone’s dead tia?
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