Corrido

Panhandling for handouts of hesitant smiles and crumbles of friendly gestures in the colonial shade of the murderer’s cathedral 

then on to the zocalo thru the callejones smelling of hot cooking oil and sweet pastries 

hanging on to the wide grin of children, eyes like canicas negras  

swayed by the blaring banda music of boomboxes behind the clothed walls of the tiengis where the placid stares of mestizo Indian follow you thru the labyrinth of the mercado past seated Zapotec figures brandishing cooking wares 

while pointing at molcajete of priedra negra 

and on and around stalls piled high with piloncillo cones 

and pyramids of herbs 

and mole paste 

and fried grasshoppers 

and jerkies of unknown provenance 

and amulets for foiling evil 

and charms for luck 

and elixirs of love 

and where all manners of brujeria kits hang from the rusted nails protruding from the carton sides of the partition walls 

across from a butcher advertising cecina 

next to a thousand painted wooden rosaries

before turning around and heading back to the tranquil hotel room the walls the color of spilt Otomi blood where she sleeps the sleep of Precambrian insects sealed in their amber stone tomb

Oaxaca, Mexico, 2006