Mexico 2006

After my mom died I ran away. I think I was looking for her. Going

the places she had been. She had moved to Arizona when she and

my father first got married. So I went to Arizona too.

She had to be somewhere. It seemed like a good place to start.

I didn't find her there. But I found a lot of other things. I found

Mexico. I found hard work and hard workers. I found a Native American

funeral, and it was there I learned about crying. I've never heard sobs like

that in my life. The woman sounded the way that I felt, and her sobs still echo in me.

Someday I will learn to work like a Mexican man in the field and sob like a Native American mother

buring her child.