Caliente

My aunt was dying

and lived with us,

my cousin and I

swimming in the pool,

the one covered with netting

Where the previous

tenant kept all her

birds.

It's one of those summers

kept so vibrantly

in my mind,

counterbalanced

with my aunt's

loss of taste.

My mom's cousin

and his wife

and her kids

lived with us, too,

that summer

and my cousin's wife

made food so spicy

my aunt could taste it,

and what a gift,

a little blessing

You sent in the hot

Texas heat, that we

could all share, no matter

the color of our skin,

or the state of its

decay.