Reasonable Suspicion: A Profile, A Poem by Rosina Talamantes
Rosina Talamantes - Reasonable Suspicion: A Profile
My 82-year-old father says, "I'm too old for this shit!"
Leonardo who marched with Cesar Chavez in their own
wrath of grapes - "Uvas No!" Leonardo who
later went by Lenny, and then Oscar so not to be confused
with that migrant worker in the other Steinbeck novel.
Oscar, whose name is a hole with a scar, listens
to NPR, reads the Los Angels Times about Arizona's
new anti-immigration law. He yells, "Boycott Arayanzona!"
His eyes drift anesthetized, a fact down a river ... ex-life
as politician: shaking hands with Bobby Kennedy, a young
Jerry Brown. The first Mexican mayor of his town... sits in
a suede recliner watching the Dodgers, azul, blue,
whose slogan is "This is My Town" squares off the TV
shaking a fist, "Badges, we don't need no stinking badges!"
Rosina Talamantes was selected out of a group of community submissions to have her poem featured here for National Poetry Month and you can share yours as well.
