Red or Green

I was raised on pinto beans and shredded cheese.

Our treat was getting pinon nuts from a van on 550,

And that little stand out by the pueblo?

That’s some of the best food you’ll find for miles.

Our compass is the Sandias where you can see the sparks of Albuquerque being sprinkled on desert darkness.

Leaving shadows on the mesa,

Like the shadows cast from the cottonwoods,

The Bosque is always afraid to be set ablaze.

And the river will just disappear into mud stained footprints when we walk on its banks.

From sunrise to sunset,

Clouds speckle the sky,

The sky that, to me, has always made it look like we were inside a snow globe.

Casinos line up like children at an ice cream truck in the middle of the summer,

My favorite one is the SpongeBob with cross-eyed gumballs

And when we went to the dollar theatre: It was because our swamp cooler was out.

Riding your bike was like holding out a magnet to all the goat heads on the ground,

Walking home with two flats and a shoe full of sand was something I got used to.

Where the sunsets are something you don’t want to get used to, they are beautiful.

Like the tortillas from the Frontier, they are so beautiful,

Especially with some carne adavada,

Which brings up the question of color.

In a place filled with so many different people, I don’t like to segregate, But I have to ask.

This is important now,

Are you Red or Green?

Because if you want to go in-between I’ll allow Christmas to be a valid answer as well,

We just needed to get that out of the way.

So I can say this.

I am New Mexican,

It might not show it in my skin,

But I was born here,

Raised here,

And so was my family,

I’m done being the outsider in a society I was raised in,

Give me one reason why blood decides who you have to be.

It only shows you who you were before.

 All that matters now is who I want to be.

I grew up thinking fresh fruit was something you only found in fancy restaurants.

I thought a tall building was three stories high,

And that freeways only has three lanes,

I thought that all mash potatoes were the instant kind,

And soup consisted of just chicken broth.

The only thing better than a bowl of red chili and beans in the winter was eating it after playing in the snow.

It was magical if it managed to stick to the ground for at least an afternoon.

I thought snowmen were supposed to be 2 feet high.

And that the mesa was something every neighborhood was surrounded by.

We are all surrounded by division signs,

By times where we build brick walls on playgrounds,

And differences stand in the way of friendships.

Despite our disagreements,

 Lets agree that skin color doesn't define anything about home.