Sit down for coffee with Nathan Brown and watch the people around you.  Ride along the Rio Grande with Cathy Arellano and wonder about your life as the sheriff comes into view.  Ah...Sundays.

These two wonderful poems can be heard this afternoon!  Yes, today in Placitas, Cathy Arellano and Nathan Brown open the Duende Poetry Series' ninth season.  Cathy Arellano lives in Albuquerque's south valley and teaches at Central New Mexico Community College.  Nathan Brown is the new Poet Laureate of Oklahoma.  The reading starts at 3:00 at the Anasazi Winery in Placitas.  Here is a map to the winery.

The Sign

She comes in—tanned, tight jeans,
bleach-blond hair down the back,
blue eyes and too much makeup—

with a baby on her hip. And I’d
decided already what this poem
was going to be about, when she

sits down across from what looks
to be her father and begins to sign
with her one free hand. He smiles

and signs back—hands rolling effusively,
lips moving in a soundless poetry.
Their gazes trade loves back and forth.

The baby’s eyes glow in the wave
and trickle of mom’s fingers that must
look like birds close enough to touch.

And the trusses of my preconceptions
begin to buckle. The edges of prejudice
begin to crumble like dry toast…

and…

I want to go over and apologize,
but I don’t know the sign for that.

I have made a mistake.

          --Nathan Brown

Riverside Drive

riverside
not that city in southern cal
where auntie diz, fran, teddy, and lucha live

riverside
where this side’s the road
that side’s the river

right there
past the ditch
beyond the cottonwoods

río grande beach
closer than tingley
río grande gentler than the pacific
that i grew up visiting on field trips

it’s 8 am on a thursday
i drive to work
take the 25 MPH sign seriously
and go 20
cars zoom ‘round me
and speed over each road hump

i join the chase
scare the chickens
at the corner of hardy

i pass the church
that was St. Luke Baptist
the new banner with its new name
flaps like the chicken wings flutter

faded buildings sprinkle plots of land
walls at half-staff
salute each driver

an oncoming car approaches
flashes lights in morning sun

i press pedal harder

car flips brights again

dude passes and nods cholo-style
the way my college friends teased me

Cathy doesn’t say hi with her mouth
She says hi with her head

i check the rearview
and wonder if trouble is coming
sure enough

sheriff rounds the corner
then i understand
and continue my ride

i want to pick up one of the beer bottles
from the side of the road
fill it
chill it
hand it to my savior
and return the nod

i turn right on la vega
right on cesar chavez
crawl up the bridge

fallen branches stick out
sand swallows the mighty Río Grande
that sat in my imagination
through geography and history
in west coast classrooms

during occasional calls
my family always asks
what’s it like out there?
i tell ‘em

good people
beautiful land

when i return home in a few years
i’ll go to my bay or ocean
probably just dolores park
with its rows of flat, porcelain troughs
and sputtering sprinklers

i’ll sit at the top of the hill
with the best view of my city
gaze at the bridge in the distance
and remember this river on the side of this road
this road by the side of this river
these people who made me feel
even if for just a little while
i could call another place home

          --Cathy Arellano

Poetry submissions are welcome.  Email theditchrider@gmail.com.