A Truth Before Truth
[poetry]
Remember Goldilocks and the Three Bears
is just white
privilege invading the woods.
Her
breaking and entering,
soup jacking
mattress selecting
sounding logical, even delightful.
My brother says riots
only occur when the cops arrive.
History dresses
in state sanctioned violence
names slapped down, stories lost
in tear gas and goose steps.
Dolores Huerta, in a crowded high school
auditorium, said, “Republicans
hate Latinos.” A declarative
uttered by a sweet pan dulce
abuela
full of experiences
ready to throw chingasos.
(One of the students asked, “Is that
True?” This was 8 years
before the electoral
college chose a mediocre
reality show celebrity for president.)
What is truth before truth? History
does not learn from the future
many know.
History is a border mining town
where the immigrant citizen workers
were loaded and deported on trains
across the line and none
of the high school history teachers
know about the Bisbee Deportation.
None of the history teachers
teach the Bisbee Deportation
names crushed into dark shafts
banished on ghost trains.
History knows about systemic indifference
and the looting of voices.
Christopher Rubio-Goldsmith was born in Merida Yucatan, raised in Tucson, AZ, and taught English at Tucson High Magnet School for twenty-seven years. Growing up near the border and in a biracial, bilingual home, and having taught in an urban high school where over seventy percent of the students were American-Mexican, much of the poetry he writes explores these experiences. Christopher graduated with a degree in creative writing from the University of Arizona. His writings have appeared in 580 Split, The Laurel Review, Toho, the anthology America, We Call Your Name, and other publications.
