Siler City Blues
She tells me that:
The doldrums of August
-with their damp breeze limping off
the sizzling asphalt, mixed with
the diesel fumes from tractors,
and the wafting aroma
of corn burning steadily on the grill-,
remind her of her city,
where young boys spin loaded gun chambers in their small, tattooed-scarred hands
instead of soccer balls at their tiny, nimble feet.
It is hard for her to remember where home is
anymore, she says.
We quietly prod our shared
white threads of chicken
in our shared Styrofoam box
with triangular bits of
flour tortilla.
Among a sweat spackled sea of pink and blonde strands,
her black, lank hair incongruously shoots
obsidian sparks under the Piedmont sun
The corner of her second-hand
turquoise sundress waves
meekly in a brief gust of wind
like a tattered flag, forgotten on conquered sands.
But she sits, contentedly, eyes warmed by one last ember of wonder.
When we finish,
she hides her knotted brown hands,
arthritic from the freezing water
they blast the chickens with as they
zip past her on the assembly line
under her thighs.
They’re like spindly mangrove roots shying out of the black earth in an unexpected winter frost.
Like that place I left long ago.
Her deprecating laughter cascades from her full,
chapped lips and cools our red bench when I tell her this.
She says that:
Despite having sworn to Christ,
that she would never eat a single damn chicken again,
especially after the manager nibbled her earlobe
unsolicitedly,
she can’t believe that somehow this bird tastes
particularly well cooked today
Alexandra McAnarney-Castro is a Salvadoran-American writer raised in Mexico City and San Salvador. For over ten years, she has worked as an activist and advocate for health, immigration, and human rights issues across Latin America and in the United States, with articles published in Truthout, NACLA, and Spain´s El País, Defunkt Literary Magazine, and soon, LatineLit Magazine, as well as various outlets in Colombia, El Salvador, and Brazil, to name a few. Much of her fiction these days focuses on how culture, memory, trauma, and geography hold their sway in shaping communities, families, and individuals. Alex studied journalism, literature, and creative writing at Florida International University and received a Master’s in Latin American Studies at the University of Chicago.