Gringo : Poems


que huele el rio

hay pisos disponibles

de un rascacielos

en frente

del

centro comercial

plaza rio .



ojos y cejas

de cristal

miran

a

tiendas

restaurantes

carros

camiones .



esa corriente ruidosa quema mas

gasolina que trae agua el rio



donde las manos de cemento

se laven



gaviotas cosechan basura

emigrantes esperan salida

y la migra

vigila .



sobre ese canal

turistas

cruzan

por el puente

para seguir a la revolucion



que importa el olor?




...this is one of the few poems I have written from the beginning in Spanish. As of yet (late August 2001) I still have not translated it. I began writing it when I saw the sign in the skyscraper across the Paseo de los Heroes from the shopping center. Up in the upper floors the big letters spell out PISOS DISPONIBLES -- floors available. After looking at that sign again and again for several months, it began to get to me, and I began to feel the flow of images from the nearby surrounding worlds recorded here. I believe that because the key words, the seeds which created this poem in me, those words are/were in Spanish, that the plant which grew in my mind in my heart came up also in Spanish.

I began writing it in May this year (2001). Tere helped me correct my Spanish.

This is the latest (probably final) version after two small changes (delete three words) suggested by Gloria Hervitz on 15 August 2001. If you have any interest in women, feminist studies, Jewish immigration to Mexico, or Spanish/Mexican poetry, then read her Imigraciones.



Tijuana Gringo

Tijuana Turinfo

Poems



Copyright 2001 Daniel Charles Thomas
email: thomas@masinternet.zzn.com