Alberto Ríos Poems

One river gives
Its journey to the next.

We give because someone gave to us.
...

  In Mexico and Latin America, celebrating one's
  Saint's day instead of one's birthday is common.
...

We live in secret cities
And we travel unmapped roads.

We speak words between us that we recognize
...

Mr. Teodoro Luna in his later years had taken to kissing
His wife
Not so much with his lips as with his brows.
This is not to say he put his forehead
...

In the old days of our family,
My grandmother was a young woman
Whose hair was as long as the river.
She lived with her sisters on the ranch
...

On the Mexico side in the 1950s and 60s,
There were movie houses everywhere
...

I've heard this thing where, when someone dies,
People close up all the holes around the house—
...

The wine of uncharted days,
Their unsteady stance against the working world,
...

The fire was so fierce,
So red, so gray, so yellow
That, along with the land,
...

1.

Pies have a reputation.
And it's immediate—no talk of potential
...