Échale Ganas

by Christopher Gutierrez Cazares

As best as you try

Stumbling, swaying every foot forward.

The feelings reverberate into my own

almost a scream but I settle for a yelp.

Echale ganas y ten fé.

    I AM   trying

To be what my parents expected of me

when they looked up at the murky night sky

crawling on gravel of La Frontera.

I need to be the reason why 

my mother’s vari-

cose veins are 

worth while, 

but that's not what I say.

Instead smile while there’s a creak

and a cr a ck  inside my chest. 

There are sacrifices needed to be made,

Well that's what our immigrant parents did

brok en  ingles,  a leftover peso clinking in their pocket.

We see their brown beaten faces in everything

done-

feel the calloused palms yet mine are porcelain 

No fault of theirs, just an unfortunate side effect. 

Muffling struggles, 

 Even when the only words they could speak were

 their names.

Animo,

                Mijo.