National Poetry Month: Sandra Cisneros

Black Lace Bra Kind of Woman – Sandra Cisneros

Sandra Cisneros (born December 20, 1954) is an American writer best known for her acclaimed first novel The House on Mango Street and her short story collection Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories.

Wachale! She’s a black lace bra
kind of woman, the kind who serves
up suicide with every kamikaze
poured in the neon blue of evening.
A tease and a twirl. I’ve seen that
two-step girl in action. I’ve gambled bad
odds and sat shotgun when she rambled
her ’59 Pontiac between blurred
lines dividing sense from senselessness.

Ruin your clothes, she will.
Get you home way after hours.
Drive her ’59 seventy-five on 35
like there is no tomorrow.
Woman zydeco-ing into her own decade.
Thirty years pleated behind her like
the wail of a San Antonio accordion.
And now the good times are coming. Girl,
I tell you, the good times are here.