Stella
first published in the evening street review
Faded speedbumps test the shocks
A hot day but not as hot as normal
Early sun rays
caught in cloud waves
of dust; kicked up
by pit bulls racing behind a chain link fence
A fat white man in a Hillis jersey with a Polar Pop;
Peyton Hillis but not when he was cut by the Giants
or by the Bucs
or the Chiefs
but when he was the Madden 12 cover player
So much dust kicked up
Saladitos stuck
in lemons claw their way into the mouths
of brown kids on new bikes
A meth-head sleeps on a realtor’s face
A pair of busted, blue chucks run over too many times to know
find shelter in the shade of an 8 inch curb
A foreclosed middle school better kept then expected glides past
Two fat coyotes gait by with bellies full of lost cats
Now, when that school was open
and had 8th grade girls with tummies heavy from unborn babies
and magazine drives and I had blue-banded braces
there were Eastside B-K tags on the walls
but not anymore
when everyone left they must have cleaned it all up
That Philippino family’s been here for years;
scaring off the javelinas scrounging in tipped over green garbage bins
An ice cream man drives by
and a flash of sticky lucas at the bottom of tiny plastic baby bottles
and melted Sonic the Hedgehog ice cream bars with frozen gum eyes
that looked in all directions
at the army brats and dark men with Korean wives
and that Black kid with bright blue eyes that smell like cat piss every time
we played Shaq Fu and Mario Kart and Golden Eye
and his brother that taught us how to do gang signs
and my dad would try to scare me to stay inside
first with stories of La Llorona
but then, later, with news reports of drive bys
A childhood of dirt bikes; and gun shots
An American flag flies high over a corner house
just under it a flag with a Block A and the words "Bear Down!"
Two young Mexican kids play soccer in their backyard
kicking up so much dust
Their 3 year old sister in just a pink skirt
carries her 4 month old baby brother
A Loews branded boxed shed in the neighbor’s yard
An old woman tends her garden
The kids yell at her in Spanish
She laughs and sprays them with water
Even though it's less hot here in Autumn