In praise of Westside Women

by Cloud Delfina Cardona

i want to praise the women

in front of me at the Valero on W. Commerce

there’s one with a Selena tattoo

on her shoulder, paying for $10 of gas

on number 3, getting two bottles of Big Red

because there’s a two-for-one special,

her mom stands next to her, wearing

a t-shirt from the 2018 Scorpions reunion tour

two rows of U.S. cities run down her back.

how many more women like these two

will live their lives & leave in silence— 

what will be remembered of them?

these women on the Westside—

their jean shorts & their curly mullets

their black eyeliner & their gold teeth

driving their RAV4 from the 2000s, 

on their way to see family in Poteet & Jourdanton

listening to puro 80s hair metal all the way there

& country music all the way back— 

their shade of red they’ve worn

for the last two decades & straightened hair

with blonde highlights, working in admin

`at the elementary school for over 20 years— 

the ones with gardens of Esperanzas

& Birds of Paradise, whose retired

husband waters every morning, always

sat the same time. 

the gen x chola at H-E-B, in line

with a basket full for her daughter’s kids

who’ve been staying with her

for the past two years, her grandson

trails behind her in the frozen food aisle

the daughters

the mothers

the non-mothers

the tías

the cousins

the grandmothers

the photographs of great-grandmothers

on the dresser

i want to praise you

for taking in your grandkids

for keeping in touch with the cousins five hours away

for taking care of your mother

for moving away despite the guilt

for being the first in your family to go to therapy

there are Westside women here that 

that the world will never know,

but can’t you see them as clearly as i do?

can’t you hold them in your heart for

a little while?