Sarah A. Rae’s poems have appeared in a variety of print and online journals, including Burlesque Press, Tata Nacho Press, fieralingue, Solamente en San Miguel, and the bilingual Mexican journal Revista Blanco Y Negro. Her translations of poems by the Mexican poet Guadalupe Ángela can be found in the online journal Ezra. A native of Champaign, Illinois, she has worked as a high school educator and guidance counselor in the Chicago area for most of her career. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Orleans.
The Night Bus Leaving Mexico
stops at the always-open roadside stand.
I choose cacajuates japonéses
and those con salsa verde—your favorite snack,
then doze as Steve McQueen speaks Spanish
in a film whose name I can’t remember.
In Monterrey I dream of getting off,
but inertia holds me thick, and Turistar
persists—now climbing on and on, still on
to the border. I pay the tax on my
mescal, show receipts, try to convince
myself I can’t recall your smile. I buy
McDonald’s, board Greyhound for the trip
home, know now I can’t contain your face,
the possibility of love, this place.