They Say Love Isn’t Real

They say love isn’t real

Somewhere I felt I belonged.

The words sprayed on a boarded wall

Where a door once stood.

They say love isn’t real

And I let it sink in

As the border patrol questions

My purpose for coming and loyalty.

Is it my exterior that deceives you

Or is my sincerity evading your fading memory?

Now, El Metro stalls to depart

It’s reason — a few drops of rain.

The driver makes room for a passenger

With a fast pass to avoid the wait.

Was my presence the inconvenience

Or does my radiance dry your well prized pain?

My phone rings of temptation

A new loan is ready for me.

They know damn well I live paycheck to paycheck

So stop refinancing my hopes and dreams.

Don’t you know I seek relief

Or do you enjoy seeing me beg and plead?

They offer a sample at the grocery store,

You need to try this.

But there’s no product in stock

Just a taste is all you need.

Is my hunger a profit?

Has it filled your shelves and greed?

Gotta head back somehow,

Join my fellow paisanos in line.

We know the routine by heart

Have your quarters in hand.

A child tugs at my pockets.

She sells sunflower seeds and looks just like me,

Asking do I have anything to spare?

Para dárselo a mi Mami.

I’d give her my delayed visa

These mud soaked jeans.

The debts and checks I’ve yet to cash

An expired coupon at Macy’s.

Tell me — why won’t the stains come off

From these mansions I scrub to clean?

Did I imagine it, too

That there might be a room there for me?

Diosito, watch over me please,

Too consumed by algorithms and endless feeds.

I forgot why it was I came here for

The promised land, the bold and free,

I guess we fabricated this — some shared misery

While locked behind our own solitary thoughts,

Because they say love isn’t real.

- Sergio M. Flores