CYNTHYA

She was
My first editor
She was friends
With Blanca

And there was
This international contest
Between schools
From both sides
Of the border

All kinds of
Cool projects
Technological
And artistic
Were submitted

I only felt
Comfortable writing
So I wrote a poem
About the beach

I guess in retrospect
It was an eco-poem

About people…

People swimming
In shit

And I gave
Cynthia the
Rough draft
And she made it
Make sense

She corrected
All the typos
And the errors
And tried to
Make it
Mistake-free

But we all now
Every poem
Is a mistake

Because a good poem
Is a good mistake

A big poem
Is a big mistake

Little poems
(My favorite)
Are little mistakes

Just like normalcy
Is fallacy
The truth
Is a mistake
To those in the
Unnatural world

We submitted
The poem
And it did not
Win 1st place
Nor 2nd
Nor 3rd

It got
A honorary
Mention award

I remember
My father
Being very proud

So much
That he bought me
My first pair of
Cowboy boots