White Guy and Selena

A White Guy Hearing Selena’s “Siempre Hace Frio” for the First Time

Two souls, one car, roll on a dark South Texas night.

We ride in silence, my eyes on the road,

her face bathed in her iPhone’s soft, blue light.

“Why don’t you speak Spanish?” while still looking at her phone.

How could I explain that my clumsy tongue,

shattered the Spanish against the walls of my mouth,

and turned a babbling brook of a language,

into a dark muddy puddle?

How could I explain the words batted like butterflies

 against my ears, refusing to land?

“Hey, listen to this!” A tap on the screen

and a voice filled the car.

If voices had color, this voice would be a

dark amber. If voices had shapes, this voice would

look like a dark, wild honeycomb.

It was full of the emptiness of anguish and loss.

I understood every word, even though I didn’t

know any word. The voice told me all. Someone

was gone, someone was lonely, someone was sad.

The voice transcended the language of men. I needed

no translator, no guidebook to navigate this land.

It was all clear.

The singer was teaching me a new language-

the language of love and loss.