Our Love on the Other Side of This Border

Anaïs Deal-Márquez

The BreakBeat Poets Volume 4: LatiNEXT & POETRY Magazine (2020)

Maybe, I would have seen you trip over the steps on the patio in between classes, or we would have met on the soccer field covered in mud, and you would have asked my name, that crooked smile spreading from your eyes to your mouth. Maybe I would have laughed. Maybe, we would have had a nieve in the plaza, and you would have held my hand after folklórico or at a fandango where I was learning to dance faster than my adrenaline. Maybe, you would have given me a bouquet of mango con chile y limón,or elote con queso and we’d count all the ways cuetes go off in this pueblo, and would walk the feria at night wrapped up in blankets drinking atole. Maybe, we would have fought over the meaning of God, maybe, that danzón after drinking the toritos would have made me cry. Maybe, I would have broken your heart over a plate of tamales and ponche or, maybe you would have cut me off with a joke. But maybe this land would have been large enough for our hearts to grow, the sun would feel different on our skin and the mercados would give a calmer pace to our lives. Maybe, our cuts would be different here, with enough medicina to move through salt water. Maybe, our roots would allow our bones to be enough.