BY JOEL SALCIDO
leave it to a seed
——––—to grow a man,
—————-——–planted in a habitat
——––—of concrete & commotion.
in rain it rivers.
——––—rises the sidewalk cracks.
—————-——–dammed at every corner—
——––—gift to the gutter.
the boon of its fruit
——––—is the broken sky—
—————-——–breather of the coughs
——––—of exhaustive traffic.
let its brown shell sail.
——––—beginnings of leaves
—————-——–plume out green smoke
——––—from the blossomed bullet casing.
now the gardener,
——––—call him Father,
—————-——–holds down a plot
——––—of earth.
the seed—a possibility
——––—spun in his barked palms,
—————-——–is smuggled across Los Angeles
——––—in nocturnal flights, seeking
—————-——–asylum from rent.
then a bird,
——––—call her Mother,
—————-——–migrates it in her feathers.
——––—the seed pressed to shape
—————-——–by her transitory nests.
her call wakes
——––—its hard exterior,
—————-——–nourishing the softness
——––—inside.
let the Father bury
——––—his fingers
—————-——–into the skin of it
——––—leaving whorls on its flesh.
let the Mother
——––—sing the seed
—————-——–songs of home—
——––—wrap it in her wings
—————-——–like a rebozo.
together they till a family
——––—out of shadows.
—————-——–a country gone to fallow.
a country they greened.
let the seed be
——––—a refugee in a valley of fire—
—————-——–it will bring roots
——––—& take root.
maíz sharpened
——––—by the whet gaze
—————-——–of streetlights.
fledgling branches
——––—honed in dust storms,
—————-——–crawl up the curbs
——––—like hands that ivy
—————-——–for the moon.
each little piece of nothing
——––—sieving through fingers,
—————-——–as if grasping for footing
were the same as gasping
——––—for water.
quench it
——––—in cement & sunlight.
—————-——–feed it shade
——––—of the alley.
——––—bury it in a city—
watch us bloom.
JOEL SALCIDO was born in the San Fernando Valley & raised in West Phoenix. He is the son of Mexican immigrants, a first-generation college graduate, a husband, & father of three sons. He characterizes his work as hood magical realism—a navigation between the grief & ecstasy of place & experience. Joel holds an MFA in Poetry from Arizona State University.
