We Were Born

broken backboards cracked asphalt
hubo momentos I chose to ignore
&
wounds I thought healed
this is a curse without a spell
dime algo
is the darkness
rushing y’all’s bodies and tearing apart

stories and fables passed down?
In your endeavors
I am the key.
Not the rain but the will to stay alive
I should not be so numb to all this grief.
We were too young to ever really know.

Julián David Bañuelos is a Chicano poet and translator from Lubbock, Tx. His poems and translations can be seen in The Cincinnati Review, The Hopkins Review, The Latino Book Review, The Common, and many more. His unpublished collection, Las Cancioncitas, was recently selected as a 2023 National Poetry Series finalist. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. You can find his work at www.juliandavidbanuelos.com