Pachuco Dreamer Falls Hard after a Classic Rosedale Low-Low Show & a Firme Cruise Thrown in Big Sleepy’s 85 Regal That’s as Sleek as the Aztec Moon


1
A la verga. That’s how it began.
A pinto. A pachuco. A presencia.
Commerce Street in his eyes.
Stacys and pomade giving a vato the magic
We all know as the shine. Like that, guey.
Two vatos--placas and ganas. Asina.
Estirantes pulled down to the waist and cuero pushed
As far back as the moist hollow of the throat
Allows. A love
In the back of ranflas and saloncitos.
A love to float cuentos to lonely homeboys.
Te lo juro.

Rimes y piedad.

Cargandomelo. Pensando del.
Love happening in the soft soul of my mouth
like a word about to come out.
Purisima. Sleeper. Those kinds of words, homes.


11
Baños y parquecitos.
Inside of himself--shit, the whole jale goin so fuckin good,
so hard. Tan firmote. Sleepy could see it—
One long, slow-ass cruise. His tongue
In that pelon’s throat, and the Regal as silver as all of desire.

Sabrás. The shit was inexplicable. De primeras.
And just when it got good,
Just when todo el borlote se calmo.
The guato goes down, el baile se acabó,
and all that’s left is the loneliness of the Westside
Moon and us. A little Temptations. Los Delfonics, guey.
Manhattans on El Monte Street and West Avenue and
Ribs that crack open like seeds and sombras and ojitos
And truths—

De verotas.

This is the sky of the most beautiful nite in the history
Of the world. A thousand cuetes and the freeways avail.
The end on their piel like worms and guantes.
He remembers. Always and forever.
Final haul to those pearly gates
Of incarceration, imminent separation.

Big Sleepy con Young Sleeper.

The nite la jura might bust down a door,
Blow open a wall and come for us, cuz
What we were doin was all wrong,
All wrong. On the outside looking in.
He could see it.

If this world were mine, homes.
Put me in jail.
Un minuto más.
I found love on a two-way street, homes.
Love will cause an inferno.


111
Today, the vato wields paños like pulque, and love sworn
Tlaquaches hum Sad Boy melodies about this one Flores Street
Dreamer who dreamed shit like no other Southside vato he’d
Ever known had dreamed before. A torcido’s love--
Barrio love at the Pearly Gates of San Anto County. Torn bedsheets
and tiny kites and visiting hours that
Never end. Simón. The view from below the
Watchtower. A la verga.


C/S

Southside Afternoon Spent Wishing for the Good Times to Come Back Again
In Memory of a Homeboy from the San Juan Courts



i. Zarzamora Street

Rims, rims, metal flake and vergüenzas!
Vengancias flare while ranflas nod.
Trucha! That tapa, that placa--De aquellas.
Bulges and spit, guey.
Congratulate me for my endurance and mis sufrimientos.


ii. Dominoes y 40s: Travels to the C&L

I watched. Homeboy takes it in the lung.
Down. So down. Couldn’t hear the air
Leaking outta him but I could hear his suspiros.
Write me a kite. Just write.

A knee never caressed tierra like yours.
Never knew in the vast bend of hard cartilage and
permanencia that scent we old school homies know
as Eternidad, 3 Flores, 3 gueys.
Ay te watcho.


iii. In the Name of the Father

Less vatos. Billows of humo and mescal.
Huezo will dangle like Puppet-veins and disaster.
This homenaje. This feria.

The sun, that sun, wide eye one of the sky unleashes:
Melancholy, barrio symphonies.
And Road construction abound!
Armies of ojas blot the horizon.


iv. Espalda, Mi Ofrenda

That thump. Brenton Wood and my bass.
River overcomes its banks. My cora, eyelids,
Cuero, the amp: bump, guey. Can you feel that bump?

Clowns and pompadours hold tight vigils.
Watchtowers wait for guato, and
we are all veteranos when love is involved, all of us.

La Virgencita aglow atop this old homeboy’s back.