Truck Tracks in South Valley Mud - Scot Key 2.16.17
"I am Remembering" by Jimmy Santiago Baca
I live in the South Valley, making this poem hit home harder than the rain hitting that loud-as-hell tin roof. Of course I don’t think rain when I think South Valley, I think dry, always dry. Still, it’s also worth pointing out that I can’t bicycle down the ditch to SVA, another water reference, because it’s so damn muddy this week.
The textural wet and tympani sound of the rain in this poem is only exceeded in imagery by the all-important earth. Land and earth are so vital to the South Valley, to live here is to be at one with it and nothing without it. Or it used to be that way, and we’re now losing our earthen connection to a bunch of pavement, concrete, and big box retail stores. We’ve sold our soul’s connection for more accessible consumer goods.
JSB and his “maiz root” represent that pre-Walmart South Valley time and place, one where I can still, for a few more years at least, ride my bike along the ditch besides alfalfa fields, scattered ever Winter with so many cranes and geese. Sometimes I just want to stop, get off the bike and lie between alfalfa rows, listening.
Word Count: 200
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