i love my neighborhood

i love my neighborhood 23feb09

i am surrounded by Mexicans on all sides except  in back        there

you’ll find woods where we dump our fallen leaves and branches

last march when tornados hop-skipped Alpharetta

into roswell and a 100-foot pine came down on the trailer and nearly killed me in my bed

benito juarez  came to check on me

mean branches  busted through the ceiling of the kitchen and living room

it was dark and the power was out and i’m pacing about

 in only my panties    dialing armando  who already left for work

 to tell him something’s fallen on the house.

i think it was a tree  i say

my neighbor’s banging on the front door:

!doña rosa!  !doña rosa!

with cell phone to my ear    i crack the door just enough not to expose myself:

!doña rosa!  !se cayó un arbol en tu casa!

but i don’t know how to say the equivalent of “no s**t” in spanish

so i tell him i’m about to come out to inspect the damage                   but

i’m in no hurry                         i make coffee and take a shower because

i know it’s gonna be a long day and i might miss my chance

 but i’ll get to take the day off and  have breakfast with my husband

sit in the driveway and drink tequila with my neighbors and tell funny stories

like about the day when my  honda accord went up in flames 30 feet high in the driveway

and how alfredo  grabbed the quart-sized kitchen fire extinguisher off  the counter

and how i looked at him and then at the inferno singeing pine needles

from branches of a tree and said:

?no piensas que sería  mejor llamarle a los bomberos?

don’t you think it would it would be better to call the fire department?

23 feb 09, 8 march 09, 23 march 09, 28 april 09