A Mother’s Vision

I am nobody,
who are you?

Emily must have been chicana
because

that’s the way
I was made to feel

growing up brown
in the Texas Fifties

dirt road
propped up by dirt

the Anglo bus
took me to school

to learn a foreign language
I asked my mother

why do I have
to learn this evil tongue

she told me
be patient son

one day you will use
that evil language

to get even
to fight fire with fire

an eye for an eye
you will show them

what they can not see
you will make them hear

what their deafness
has kept them from hearing