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Neighborhood of could-be artists who plied their talents on the pool's bath-house walls/intricately adorned with esoteric symbols of their cult: [[image]] [[image]] [[image]] LOWER EAST SIDE EL NUFO C/S 2-TIMER "TAPON" 13 LA LOMA LOVE LA CARRIE the art form of our slums more meaningful & significant than Egypt's finest hieroglyphics. Neighborhood where purple clouds of Yesca smoke one day descended & embraced us all. Skulls uncapped - Rhythum n' Blues Chalie's 7th St. Club loud funky music / wine spodee-odees/ barbecue & grass our very own connection man: big black Johnny B- Neighborhood of Reyes' Bar where Lalo shotgunned Pete Evans to death because of an unintentional stare and because he was escaudra, only to end his life neatly sliced by prison barber's razor. Durán's grocery & gas station Güero drunkenly stabbed Julio arguing over who'd drive home and got 55 years for his crime. Ratón: 20 years for a matchbox of weed. Is that cold? No lawyer no jury no trial i'm guilty Aren't we all guilty? 58 Indian mothers, too unaware of courtroom tragi-comedies folded arms across their bosoms saying, "Sea por Dios". Neighborhood of my childhood neighborhood that no longer exists some died young - fortunate - some rot in prisons the rest drifted away to be conjured up in minds of others like them. For me: only the NOW of THIS journey is REAL! Neighborhood of my adolescence neighborhood that is no more YOU ARE TORN PIECES OF MY FLESH!!!! Therefore, you ARE. LA LOMA - AUSTIN - MI BARRIO - i bear you no grudge i needed you then...identity...a sense of belonging i need you now. so essential to adult days of imprisonment, you keep me away from INSANITY'S hungry jaws; Smiling/ Laughing/ Crying. i respect your having been: my Loma of Austin my Rose Hill of Los Angeles my West Side of San Anto my Quinto of Houston my Jackson of San Jo my Segundo of El Paso my Barelas of Alburque my Westside of Denver Flats, Los Marcos, Maravilla, Calle Guadalupe, Magnolia, Buena Vista, Mateo, La Seis, Chiquis, El Sur, and all Chicano neighborhoods that now exist and once existed; somewhere..., someone remembers..... 14 Sept. '69 LEAVENWORTH