Los Vecinos
Teresa, our Mexican neighbor,
climbs our porch steps on arthritic legs,
carrying a plate of fresh tamales,
still warm, wrapped in cloth,
because they're having a cook-out in their yard
with all the tias and grandbabies,
and we're included in the golden circle
of familia, through no virtue
of our own, yet here she is again at our door
with a plate of something delicious, or a big plastic bag
filled with nopales from the edible pads
of the giant cactus in their yard
which she has skinned and cubed and boiled
in salted water. They're slippery as okra
and tart as lemons and she swears they will cure
a long list of ailments, including
but not limited to cancer, high blood pressure,
diabetes...standing on our porch, leaning
against the railing, she enumerates
the benefits while I smile and nod, "Si, si, gracias..."
My friend who lives in a rich neighborhood
says she's seen ICE patrolling, looking for gardeners
and maids escaping over the back fences of Marin.
They're tearing apart families like clumps
of seedlings, uprooting whole delicate
ecosystems, but what they don't
understand is the mycelian nature
of kinship, how love is a weed
that travels across borders in a bird's belly
and pops up waving its arms, no matter the law.
Our block resounds with spangled mariachi tunes
all summer long, and I'd be lying if I said
I wasn't jealous some evenings,
lying awake while parties go on around us,
because this land is their land, and this devotion
is tough and joyous, and Teresa can't read
the red card that says Know Your Rights
in English and Spanish, nor understand
how I make a living, but she knows
what to do with the guava tree
growing along our driveway, whose leaves
are medicinal in dozens of ways--whose leaves,
as the Bible says, are given for the healing of the nations.
Alison Luterman is a poet, essayist and playwright. She has written four books of poetry, most recently In the Time of Great Fires. Her next book Hard Listening will be published this month. She is also author of a book of essays about late-life romance entitled Feral City, as well as of scripts and songs for numerous theater pieces. She lives with her late-life love and her unruly cat in Oakland.