HECHIZOSPELLS

                     Soledad, April 7, 1961


Tiers/Tears*


slow tears
trickling on the tiers,
his face hooted on
onto the hollows
of prison life;

                          he tried vainly
                          to escape,
                          the beatings
                          he received
                          lashed/cut
                          into hisemptysocketeyes
                          and all his hurts
                          ran together,

can one separate
one's life
into scattered fragments
of pain
and joy
and knowing?

                          he tried vainly
                          and then cried
                          tears
                          upon tears
                          upon the steel
                          prison tiers,

young hurting
chicanito,
he once shared
a cup of coffee,
told me his father
was también

delchuco,
and he wondered
about a bordertown
he'd heard about
while growing up
in los,

                          but los perros 
                          lo golpearon 
                          and he cried 
                          upon that tier 
                          and somehow felt 
                          he'd lost
                          his manhood . . . .

*also appeared in Selected Poems