Nogales

fast food parking lot, a
border town, a satin lavender
angel sits in a welded metal
meadow and calls me back
a thousand lives, where violet
arms of warrior trees stood
tall and noxious fumes of
shiny boxes still alien to this
chalice of flowered lilac buds, left space
horn ends moment, I am this life and this
man is trying to sell me
zapatos on this street where I saw a child
pissing, just pissing on a street corner
while all these; Chiclets and tequilas and suns
and drums all are screaming my name at once
i answer to them all: let me drink from all of your
poisons and wear your sombreros and salsa through
these gringo-mall alleys
but let me sit near this purple poppy
and sit in my past for a bit
before you put a sol in this
palm and steal dollars from my
pockets, before you take
me to you house and sell me cocaine
and then ask me why I came?
i came to see this tree
or something of the sort to give
me some kind of familiar
sense that somehow, some way
too much beauty escaped from somewhere
and licked this tree to
angelic amethyst glory

while these border streets kindly whistle
for a change