I was born in a spring-like winter surrounded by flowers of every color singing birds and swimming pools

On Sundays we would go to the market to buy corn dough and grapes that I would later eat by the swing with Rodrigo my best friend

The market smelt like coriander and yellow fruit like Xempazuchitl flower on the day of the Dead

I grew up here I walked to school with my sister and three dogs the dogs would go back home alone

I cried here over my first death a traffic accident in the old north highway I was here when I heard that my aunt had been shot in the heart

The first time I made love was here with my high-school sweetheart we were quite lame

One day we were stopped by men carrying AK-47s

One day the cops opened my car and stole my CDs the neighbor saw

I found my brothers here we used to attend The Kingdom to hear a band called The Pauls we were not afraid

I found my wife here she was invited to a party by a mutual friend who was hitting on her

One day we couldn’t get home there were tanks in the street

That day it got worse

We fight someone’s war we are the hero and the enemy our decapitated bodies wake up by the main roads we are hanged from the bridges our gray veins are full of blood

I remember the yellow flowers the birds and the swimming pools before