
Rebecca Gayle Howell (ed.)
et al.
Published online:
18 May 2023
Published in print:
07 March 2023
Online ISBN:
9780813197418
Print ISBN:
9780813182438
Contents
Cite
Romero, Levi, 'Most Skin Hit Road', in Rebecca Gayle Howell, Ashley M. Jones, and Emily J. Jalloul (eds), What Things Cost: an anthology for the people (Lexington, KY , 2023; online edn, Kentucky Scholarship Online, 18 May 2023), https://doi.org/10.5810/kentucky/9780813182438.003.0080, accessed 14 May 2025.
Extract
the visiting community-activist contingencycomes into her home as invited guestspolitely invading her life withgift baskets of hugs, laughter, andyou’re looking great! salutationstheir warm blessings filling the roomwith wide-open arm offerings of good conversationand quick-comeback humorous anecdotesto transport her past nagging thoughtsof next month’s mortgagethe leaking faucetsthe molding wallboardthe house too bigleft over from a bad divorceleaving her with the two childrento carry on with the domesticitiesof this place stayed at too longlonger than what was plannedlonger than what was wished forlonger than what until I’m done with school might’ve meantwhat would make a manpick up his lifehis personal possessionswhat he deems as his most precious belongingsand leave his small childrenhis name and the shape of their eyesthe blood that runs through their veinstheir tender skin, their soft complexionthe color of his own mother’sthe resonance of his grandfather’s laughterand musical quality in their voice and pronunciationsmore than mere traces of himselfupon their temperament, the slow or fast to decisionthe methodical calculationhis impulsive nature and neurotic tendencyfor quick resolutionthese being his traitsstepping back to check the doorknobin his final leavinghis girlfriend awaiting his arrivaltwo states away with tomorrow night’sdinner reservationswe stand in the kitchenfondling for conversation and dialoguedipping for some topic interesting enoughto make ourselves appear intelligent, compassionateand genuinely concerned about world issuesand the plight of all humankindla frontera, las desaparecidas, los braceros, las maliquidorasthat war, this war, that president, that president!she, an attractive woman, still youngspeaking fluently in two languagesher eyes dark and warm as the border sundownphotos taken at different stages of motherhoodon the refrigerator doorthe magnet poetry scattered and nonsensical“most skin hit road”outside the humidity is heavy as a street blanketshards of broken glasson the front porch stepsJuárez’s flickering lights in the distanceEl Paso trains whistling byher memories of Laredomy attention nailed nowto the broken rosary necklacehanging from a porch columnour own historieswho we arewhere we come fromcould be reinventedin the next sentence utteredthe next clever line spokenthe next interjection of humor andsincere display of pleasantriesmasking over the face of a new personaany further answers to all possible questionsmade more believablethan the reality of our own true selvesour own leaking faucets, ragged lawnsoil-stained driveways, two nights of dinner dishesand yesterday morning’s half-filled cereal bowlson the counterwho has time for the trivial thingswhen we spend our clichéd livesadorned with momentary lapses of reasonand an existence busiedby just trying to make tattered ends meet
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