I am going to marry the latina grocery girl
That works at the Pioneermart at the
bottom of the hill
The girl with ink black hair and the proud native nose
Who asks ¿
papel o plástico?
The girl with the
fetching gap between her front teeth
That makes her smile a manifesto of liberation
For the space between incisors.
The marriage is a disaster
Her mother hates me
Her brothers hate me
My mother hates her
Mi esposa supermercado
And our gap-toothed daughters
With their ink black hair in braids
Yes, mother, her
English isn't the best.
But my
Spanish is nothing to write home about.
Well, yes, I guess I didn't write home about it
Until we were married
But I thought you would be happy because
It was a lovely Catholic ceremony
We are cast out
From the
mountains
The city
The beach
So we move to an empty town in
Kansas
Where our daughters grow up
Tall and bright like sunflowers
The four of them
Tall and bright
The lovely gaps between their front teeth
That make their every smile a manifesto of liberation
For the space between oceans.