Another View

[sooZen]

<center>headline bleeds on my hands
like the Revolucion of yore
I have a front row seat
from the deck facing south I watch
red, green and white
an eagle clutches a snake
stranglehold across the rio

cartels, armies, policia entangled
headlines bleed every day
los ninos, las madres y mi hermanos die
crossfire victims for American appetites

Yo te amor Mexico
I am a Guerra watching from a perch
sangria on my hands, bleeding for you
your peoples, your music, your food
the colors are intense in the market
I can no longer visit for I am afraid
I fear for me, I really fear for you

Mi Amor, mi Amiga you are bleeding
the blood of familias seeping
the rio runs red in the west Texas sunset
drugs trickle and flow for fancies
and you are wounded and crying

I wash my hands and do the dishes
for nothing can stanch the hemorrhage
unless and until we Americanos...
no, I wash my hands and look east</center>

Note: Yesterday another death of a policia in Juarez, Mexico. The Mexican army is massed at the border. The deaths go on day after day. Two bystanders killed in Palomas, one of my favorite places in this world (the Pink Store) cannot be visited without taking a great risk.

During the Mexican Revolution, El Pasoans stood on the banks of the Rio Grande to watch the armies of Pancho Villa fight the government of Mexico...despite the stray bullet or two that whizzed over their heads...

Forgive my espanol, it is border lingo of a guerra.

[judih]

fabulous raunchy, gutsy piece.
i feel the grit in your pain

[Lightning Rod]

sooz,

An old friend of mine died last week. I went to college with TJ and had many adventures with him. One of these adventures was our trip to Juarez.

TJ was nineteen and his girlfriend was seventeen. They wanted to get married but her parents were having none of it so they decided to elope. My wife and I were on our way to California, so we took TJ and Deb with us in the Chevy van where we all slept. When we got to El Paso we parked the van and took a cab across the border and in about two hours they were married and we caught a buzz with the taxi driver all for less than a hundred bucks including filing fees and mordida.

Reminds me of a Marty Robbins song.

[mtmynd]

great piece, Soo... heartfelt and maniacal for it's truth. the scene over there drives me nutz when i hear about it. damn drugs. damn cartels. damn government. damn fence. damn it, dammit.

[westcoast]

fabulous poem, SooZen. you are writer with heart.

~westie

[mnaz]

If you build enough walls, alter enough state, nothing out there is real.
Powerful piece, Soozen.

[sooZen]

Thank you friends for your kind responses. Alas, i must face south every day and it is impossible to close my eyes to suffering of innocents and a beautiful culture that I so enjoy. It just poured out this morning and I appreciate your reading.

To be continued, i'm sure...

[Arcadia]

your español sounds good there!!!!
nice to read you!!!

[sooZen]

Thanks Arcadia...mi espanol es not near as good as your grasp of Engless.

Unfortunately, 5 more people were shot and killed in Palomas this last weekend, Mother's Day of all days. The war continues...and the pictures on the local news showed the pink adobe wall of the Pink Store riddled with bullet holes. Sigh.