America, You Tease, I Love You by Isabel Quintero

America, You Tease, I Love You by Isabel Quintero

America, I am the daughter of immigrants deserted in deserts. / Brown flesh left out for coyotes to chew, quench their hunger, and shit our bones. /  Save me America! /  It’s those damn Mexicans! / Amidst saguaros and chollas, /  strewn about like some bloody trail, /  bloated and sun-split bodies pave the way home. / We have guts to spare, or didn’t you know? / Or maybe we just like the taste of your honey; / either way, it’s liberty or death or something like that.

My neighbor died today. He was an addict who put a knife to my dad's throat a few times. He also gave us lemons. A Poem by Isabel Quintero

My neighbor died today. He was an addict who put a knife to my dad's throat a few times. He also gave us lemons. A Poem by Isabel Quintero

I saw them take your body out of the house, leg hanging off the stretcher, your mother, a / crazed Mexican legend, screaming after you. Earlier, her little baby slumped on the toilet, / slipping through his father’s hands; hands that had once ended lives in some Asian jungle, / couldn’t keep you here anymore than they could keep a country.