Chicano Captain’s Log

The Chicano Captain Kirk
is mixing chili powder, corn flour
and cilantro to kill the Gorn,

the bamboo canon flashes,
the Gorn goes down as if
it had been slapped by a giant Alurista,

as if he’d been knocked off balance
by Alma Villanueva’s wide naked hips
and plump derrière,

as if Sandra Cisneros had fed him bad mango,
as if La Jefita had hit him on Octavio Paz’s face
with a hot palote,

as if somehow ( : yes, somehow : )
every Chicano poet who studied under Levine
actually wrote Chicano poetry.

In the end, Kirk helps the Gorn to his feet,
and the lousy lizard stumbles away
like the smoking mirror of our past.