Our grocery store. Our bank. Our beloved local coffee shop and pizza parlor. I didn’t know where I was until I saw the magnolia tree, rigid and charred.
The / hibiscus out my window now blooms the bright / tongue & lips of the Rolling Stones car-freshener / hanging from the rearview mirror of my tío’s / Chevy.
Throughout history, the marauding aristocracy has torn away people from their land and community, most recently in the formation of the modern industrial nation.