Soledad, May 15, 1963

    Ain't Nuttin' for a Stepper*

Ain't nuttin' for a stepper, 
old timer,
for this chuquío paseño
is now going about to step 
and strut his way 
to the cantón. 
i am a-steppin, long timer, 
'cause i am now 
chicano short timer 
and time no longer hurts, 
it just haunts, 
but i've gotlessthanamonth
NETA-less THAN A MONTH-to go 
and kiss them bricks 
and swallow
El Paso dust
and hear mariachis
in Juaritos
and jive and galavant
and see those groovy rucas 
and make out all night long; 
look, esos,
i will catch a groovy broad 
and scam and shuck and jive. 
me voy para el cantón, 
yes, i'm going home again 
to eat my mamma's cooking 
and feel alive again 
and just relax and bask 
beneath el paso's sun 
and don't you give me no jive, ese, 
about my coming back.
                     like hell i will, 
not that i've learned my lesson,

it's just that it's a drag 
to feel despondently, 
to know this emptiness.

* also appeared in Selected Poems