El Otro Lado

At my grandmother's house when someone died they went to El Otro Lado. It they went to work while we were in México, they went to El Otro Lado. If my uncles went to visit relatives, their wives in the winter while in the U.S., they went to El Otro Lado.

I never understood where El Otro Lado was.

I learned to read maps at an early age,

to find out El OTRO LADO

A mouth, a bean, a heart, all look alike from afar

In el otro lado, taste different

settle in you like an incrusted ring

into your finger

a mouth kissing, purring words out like a dove

a bean not of Jack in the bean stalk

a heart, an ace, a lone arranger

Like a deck of cards or the folds of an achordeon El Otro Lado hid,

behind a river

over a mountain

under a dream that was American

and Mexican and holy

El otro lado

a bigger unanswered prayer that we find

only in conversation, a U.A. a Mexico, a universe, an underground, the skies and the heavens all in one continent

like the holy US spirit

father Mexico

son death

a triptich trinity of thoughts

I learned to read maps at an early age ,

only to understand

death has countries

and rivers and mountains

death has flowers

and lava volcanoes

death has mothers and fathers and trees of all matters

Del otro Lado