My Dogs are Barkin'!

Oct. 13, 2012

My Dogs are Barkin'!

When you're on your feet as much as me,
     you start to know this feeling,
Like your bones will
     CRACK 'n SNAP in half
          at any step you take.

Know what I mean?
     Good.

So,
I was headin' home last night,
     strollin' California in Little Mexico,
When
CRACK 'n SNAP
     go the bones in my shoes,
My arches shuddered
    'n collapsed flat,
And down I rolled
With a WHUMP,
landing with my back against
     a tiny,
          single table taqueria.
My poor dogs let out a howl of pain,
     so loud they woke the neighbors.
Out of the house steps this sweet abuela,
     grey haired
          with skin wrinkled as a husk of corn,
          tanned a leathery brown.

Eh Gringo!
     Your howling woke me up,
          so keep it down!
     I've got seven mouths to feed at morning,
          and I'm frying 'til the night!

I said,
     Abuela,
          Perdoname, perdoname,
     but a ten hour day
          for ninety dollars
               is enough to make any dog cry.

She stepped my way,
CRACK 'n SNAP
And she went down!
I caught her in my arms
     to the sound of her feet how-howlin',
neighbors screaming out
     all down the street,
but we just laughed,
     and wept,
          and shared,
     me on ticket sales,
          her on empanadas,
               and the shores of Mexico.