The Midwest

 I went to college in 

the Midwest that had

never seen a Latinx 

face, classmates laughed

whenever I let Spanish 

fly like pigeons from my

mouth and starched shirt

pastors sighed when I

kneeled at the altar rail

to pray in my first and

mother tongue. the cops

threw me in jail simply 

for looking too Puerto

Rican in their bigoted

little town and making

me out to be everything

they decided I had to be

save a student at a Lilly

white school. they did 

not know I came from 

a place where even the

little kids like Jesus walk

on the darkest water known

in the world where light

never spreads. after a night

in a cell, I was released to

a foster Uncle, taken back

to campus and I spent the

next four years with another

version of my Latinx self in

a small white town rising 

early with country people

having a hard time hearing

me testify to light. 

h. j. Recinos