On Day of the Dead I ask you to come

home with me to see my altar.

That’s a better line than come and see my etchings.

You do come. Like the spirits that night.

You follow the xempoaxóchitl petals and make

your way to my door, that door abandoned and

solitary a full year. You make your way and say

you’ve been sad, and I say I’ve been sad too,

because it’s true, I have.

The one before you

alive and haunting my heart, and I

want and long for release from the hurting.

You come with your own ghost following you.

Save me, we think, but don’t say it.

I ask, Thirsty? And serve you mezcal before you answer.

Drink the bottle left for los difuntos, clink our copitas.

I’ll send you home with the cabrito I set out for my father,

the chocolate bizcochitos, the buñuelos on a clay plate.

Everything but the confetti jello, I say, and laugh.

Sal y agua on this altar. Salt perhaps for our tears,

water for the dead who are always thirsty.

Scent of warm wax candles and acrid marigolds.

Edith Piaf singing “La vie en rose.” Chavela Vargas.

Lola Beltrán. Nina Simone’s “I Put a Spell on You.”

And I wonder if that cabrito will cast its magic spell.

The night is long.

We talk late though you have to get up early.

Talk while the dead come back and savor us. Talk,

which is a kind of alimento, a nourishing.

Talk con ganas, as they say. You and I.

With feeling.

Buen árbol / A Good Tree

A SONG FOR GUITAR

El que a buen árbol se arrima,

Buena sombra le cobija.

Arrímate. Anímate.

Don’t be afraid of me.

If you were smart

You’d know I’m a good good tree.

If you were smart

You’d know I’m a good good tree.

I’m the finial and flag of my own nation.

I’m the school of knocks.

I’m a little bit of comfort mixed

With a little bit of consternation.

I’m the waltz of reason

In the season of rain at last!

If you were smart

You’d know I’m a good good tree.

If you were smart

You’d know I’m a good good tree.

Sweet huisache, teach me.

Nourish me, nogal.

Alamo, fortify.

Mesquite, endurance please.

I’ve waited out drought.

Sprouted from my own fire.

Survived the hailstorm

Of desire. Desire.

If you only knew.

If you were smart

You’d know I’m a good good tree.

If you were smart

You’d know I’m a good good tree.

The flower and the fruit am I.

Butterflies breathing life am I.

Resurrection and redemption am I.

Pie in the sky am I.

Kid and wise guy am I.

The still and the gale am I.

Fever and frustration am I.