BIO
Alfredo Aguilar is a Mexican-American poet living in North County San Diego. He is the co-director of Glassless Minds, a bi-weekly open mic in Oceanside Ca.
ode to ritchie valens
at seventeen your voice poured out of radios across
the nation. a song from another time, another country,
in a language that brown school children were forbidden to speak
when it was the only thing they could use to remember.
you were so much like us, relearning the language our mothers
used to lullaby us to sleep. a salve for any wound.
a language where all of the songs sounded like weeping.
had the corners of your name rounded off for the ease
of some other mouth. you rode through snow in iowa
& the cold found a way in under the thin metal skin of the bus.
your cough caught on the window. eight months after
the country knew your name you fell out of the sky & into
a cornfield. the morning after, the house you bought your mother
in los angeles was covered in snow. the radio stations played
your songs but all that came out of the speakers
was the sound of wind cutting through cornstalks. in a room your record
spun & your young voice rose from a distant place
well, come on, let's go, let's go, little darlin’ tell me that you'll never leave me.
ode to selena in two erasures
i. selena translated after the bullets
I know that you have
a new love
Nevertheless
I wish you the best
If you didn't find
happiness in me
Maybe someone else
will give it to you
Like the flower (like the flower)
With so much love (with so much love)
That you gave me
It withered faded away
I leave today
I know how to lose
But, ay...
How it hurts me
Ay...
How it hurts me
If you could see how much it hurts
to lose your love
With you goodbye, you take
my heart (with you)
I don't know if I can
Love again
Because I gave you all the love
That I could give
Like the flower ..
ii. prayer written on the door where selena was shot
Who calls this child to walk on her own?
Who leads her down this treacherous road?
She's dancing to a song we can't hear
Caminando en calle doce (12)
Debes estar en la escuela
Dulce angelita, de quien eres tu?
Come dance with me (ven, baila conmigo)
Come dance with me (ven, baila conmigo
Come dance with me
God make s us dream, but won't set us free
God calls us dance to songs we can't hear
Cancion del vampiro
Gloria de amor
Es nuestro reino
Pero vean lo que hemos hecho
Come dance with me (ven, baila conmigo)
Come and dance with me (quiero ser libre)
Come dance with me (ven, baila conmigo)
Como tu, como tu solo puedas bailar...
oye, mira, baila conmigo
No me dejes sola
Ven, ven, ven
No me dejes sola
Ooh, come on down
Ooh, ooh, ahh, ahh
Ah, set me free (quiero ser libre ) ha!
Come dance with me (ven, baila conmigo)
Ooh, ahh, with me