Three Teenage Boys in Cowboy Hats and Wrangler Jeans

Three teenage boys in cowboy hats and Wrangler jeans
dance their lariats in the dusky light of a gravel parking lot

The cars are a rag of wild horses some grazing at the edge
One treading in and about jockeys for an empty space

A portable roadside marquee at the entrance to the lot
advertises in mismatched letters Hotdogs Estilo Sonora

My sister died just ten minutes west of here
forced off an overpass and into the empty Agua Fria River

her body
found three days later spoiling in the sun

her body
unidentifiable but for a washed-out tattoo

The girl working the cashbox recognizes grief
how it sits around the eyes rests on the gentleness of my order

She balances comfort on her lips makes to know my pain
Instead offers a delicate gracias takes my money with reluctance

The boys oblivious to everything outside this moment
continue to whoop and holler rope concrete cinderblocks like cattle

Ernesto L. Abeytia is a Basque- and Spanish-American poet and teacher. His poems appear or are forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Fugue, Crab Orchard Review, PBS NewsHour, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University, an MA in English from Saint Louis University, and an MA in Anglo/North-American Cultural and Literary Studies from the Autonomous University of Madrid in Madrid, Spain. He currently teaches at Binghamton University and Arizona State University. www.ernestoabeytia.com