Two Poems
Jorge Humberto Chávez
English translation by José Ramón Ruisánchez & Tamara R. Williams
ANOTHER CHRONICLE
On October 6th of his year Armando El Choco mentioned at a party that they were
looking for him
and they found him a month later that morning he was warming up his car’s engine to
drive his daughters to school
in 1967 we’d go to the Rio Grande to wash the barrio cars first Chato’s [Flatface] then
Bogar’s [Bogart] and finally Huarache Veloz [Flyin Flilflop]
in 1990 policemen used to go to the Rio Grande to fish from the banks for young girls
waiting to cross over to El Paso
in the year 2010 the Grande almost no longer a river a migra and Sergio Adrián age
13 he fought with a stone in his hand and the agent with a revolver
that same year in a store in Salvácar the clerk refused to pay the ransom and got shot
in the head
and 17 of his neighbors were hunted down one by one while celebrating the touch-
football game they had won
oh young sons of Cadmus I know you’d rather be anywhere else but you are here
today old Ovid sang
and you woman taken out of your house and then threatened that they’d kill your
husband if you didn’t go on your last car-ride
I’d tell you to come with me and cry at the Rio Grande but you must know that there
is no longer a river nor tears
2 GRINGOS RONDAN LA CASA DE MI INFANCIA
For Balta, Irma, Paquín, Fer, Mike, Carmen and Concha
1. Neil Armstrong
Observaba desde la acera el polvorón de la luna. Había oído a una mujer en el patio de la finca: decía que al pisar Armstrong la luna ésta se desharía por el peso de su pie. Yo no creía, pero por si acaso seguía la crónica en el televisor y cuando el astronauta estaba a punto de saltar de la escalerilla traspuse la puerta a esperar cómo desde el cielo nos caería una lluvia de finos y delgados escombros.
2. Charles Manson
Dormía yo en la litera inferior. Sabía que muy cerca de mi casa, mil millas al oeste, a sólo trece horas en auto, en Los Ángeles, Charles Manson también estaba en su litera de la prisión, despierto, pensando en la fuga y en refugiarse en Ciudad Juárez. Mañana por la noche estará aquí, pensaba. Veía su pelo largo y revuelto, sus ojos ruines, su risa desafiante. Podía dormirme, pero lo hacía con el corazón estrangulado por la mano del hombre que al día siguiente vendría por mí.
Posted: May 27, 2014 at 12:16 am
