A Truth Before Truth

/in , /

[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.