swapmeet

chicano essence
burned into black top-
                  spaced lots
where paper cups fly and dance
plastic bags
          whisper  &
                       breathe
in clutched hands

cardboard signs
flutter like paper flags
                 as people
flooding gates
pour 50c
to the ticket man who waits
     as the rain begins
                     at the swapmeet

plastic toys
blink and squint colors
as korean merchants
               time chants of
BARATO! BARATO! BARATO!
ONE DOLLAH! ONE DOLL$! ONE $! 1$!

cada color
     cada chant
               even the greasy smells
               touch & call out

music meets tortilla air
                  exhaust begins
                  burning baby eyes
spilt coke gives tongues to feet
                  they converse
                  steps becoming sticky, hear it?

hips adjust to
children running
like small waves
     in the crowd

falling just past noon
the sun pushes prices even lower
as a frenzy begins,

soaring heat
baking back lots
the flood rushing to cool itself
moves into fresh openness
of empty aisles
always speeding, slowing,
                    bending, flowing
til late afternoon it all continues

humanity boils
            & is
                   chicano essence
            branded
                   into blacktop asphalt

shades soothe
attempt cooling
     trapped shadows
as the frenzy under the falling sun continues

          sweat steams
               burning black hair
                          higher into the sky

swapmeet is
   chicano essence
         boiling from the masses
       rising like moist hot air
             on saturdays and sundays
            when at 50c
                the flood begins
                    at the swapmeet