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Tuesday, November 01, 2016

Orale, Ese (Pronounced Oh-Rah-Lay Es-Say)

"Orale,

I've been waiting
for you, ese.

Where've you been?

Yeah, I know,
you're alive and kicking,
and no one wants
to come down
to the cemetery
on their day off.

I've been watching you,
from here,
and you're still
kind of a boring
guy, pocho.
Jes' kiddin', ese.

I get it.
I'd trade with you
if I could.

Why you keep
looking at your watch?

Yeah, I know
you got kids waiting
for their Chick-Fil-A
but first,

I dunno,

just think of me
sometime,
you know?

You don't have to put up
a whole ofrenda 
or anything,

but when you hear
Trio Los Panchos,
or when you get that
warm, full feeling
after you eat menudo,

think of me,
en Espanol, tambien.

Ok, that's all,
thanks, senor. 

Adios, ese."

33 comments:

  1. Love the conversational ease in this and especially "I've been watching you" and "why you keep looking at your watch."

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    1. Thanks, I structured it as a monologue.

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  2. All Saints Day, a perfect time to visit the graveyard. We actually had a gorgeous cemetery where we lived once - overlooking Lake Michigan and had lots of trees, hills and valleys. People often visited and strolled through and I thought that was nice.

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    1. Thanks, yes I pictured it as visiting my father for Dia de los Muertos (which is today) and having a conversation.

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  3. I love your point of view here, B. I can see people looking at their watches. So sad.

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    1. Yes, visiting the cemetery holds one's fascination for so long. Thanks, Mosk

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  4. Isn't this nice, being able to get closure there at the cemetery. I wish I could do this with my first love, of the first grade. She moved away, but killed herself just after high school. Another girl friend of high school, the same. I visit in my mind but there isn't much solace there. Plus, though, I don't know where they are burried.
    And I don't want to go at any rate unless they would share like your Ese here.
    Adios.

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  5. Gracias for your kind words. I think closure is a nice word, but when we love someone and lose them, the car is never closed.

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    1. The case is never closed, that should read.

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  6. Ah, I love "just think of me sometime, you know?" Loved this poem. Love the tone of the speakers, so affectionate.

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  7. I like this. Especially can relate to the reference to Trio Los Panchos. My grandparents loved them. So do I and I think of my relatives who are gone when I listen to the trio. Hope we all think of our loved ones sometimes Ese.

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    1. Si I loved their version of "Sabor A Mi" con Edie Gorme, gracias.

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  8. Live the tone. It's easy and friendly. No scary 👻 ghost stuff

    Thanks for dropping in to read mine

    Much love...

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    1. I'm not a ghost-believing Mexican. Thanks.

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  9. Pretty realistic! but despite the sad/rough edges, the ghost has a sense of humor--ot he still tortures his son/brother?

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  10. How else would they talk to you? He wouldn't have changed much. What a great take on the subject.

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  11. Anonymous7:20 PM

    You've captured that scene so well.. so real, intimate and poignant.

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  12. You've captured that scene so well...intimate, poignant and real.

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    1. Thanks,. I appreciate your kind words.

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  13. Brilliant response to the prompt, Mosk ❤️

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  14. oh so much warmth & love here...

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  15. Nowadays even this visit would probably be punctuated by glances at a phone. But still, the father-spirit gets it. Very comforting.

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    1. Thanks, I see myself in both the son and father roles.

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  16. How sad, the fear to be forgotten. That's how I feel now already when my kids are now to busy with their own lives, would that continue after you die?

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    1. Yes, that's how I feel about my adult children too. I'm not sure the dead care about being remembered, but I think it's important for the living: it keeps us grounded in the reality of mortality. Thanks for your comments.

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  17. How wonderful this poem is... The lines: "think of me, en Espanol, tambien." were particularly poignant because with the death of elders in foreign society, other things die out as well: Language, customs, religion, family values, sense of community and identity. We honour our dead by remembering them and we remember them by maintaining their culture, living according to the values they taught us, raising our families in the way that they showed us worked, and of course speaking their language and teaching it to our children/

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    1. Thanks. I wrote this as a dialogue at my father's graveside. We spoke a melange called Spanglish.

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