Birthmark

Dec 7, 2010, 6:31 pm CST

cloudy moon rises

over white silver

sands El Chuco

hills smooth concrete

loom like dunes awaiting

some pachuco’s arrival

to mark in ancient script

name, neighborhood, street

magic marker popul-voh

a faded clue left to say

a 100 years from today:

Yo Soy, Yo Era, Yo Sigo. *

 

El Paso, Tejas.

 

* I am, I was, I continue to be.

 

Gregg Barrios is a poet, playwright and author living in San Antonio. This poem is from his latest collection, La Causa, published this month by Hansen Publishing.

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Gregg Barrios is a playwright, poet and journalist. A 2017 Harvard Fellow and a 2018 Yale NEH Fellow, he is the author of "My Life is the Poem I Never Wrote: Selected Poetry."


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