And so I bleed

Night
has educated me
in the learned
profession
of light
-Lucha Corpi; Sunflower

I never learned
Much
At UC Berkeley—
No offense
To UC Berkeley—
It is just that
William Shakespeare
&
Ernest Hemingway
Never did
Anything
For me.

I learned on
My own
At the public library—

And by watching
Vietnam veterans
Reach for cans
From the dumpsters

In the middle of
The dead, wide,
And blue streets.

I learned from
Observing
My father's
Calloused hands

As he eagerly
Counted
The gringo dollars
He broke his back for—

And so I write.

I deciphered
The message of
This poem
From the
Orange bloodstains

On the brown wall
Where they shot
Ruben Salazar;

This page is
But an homage
To the throbbing
Hunger pains

Inside the
Barren ribcage
Of César E. Chávez—

And so I bleed.