Bridges of Algodones

At check point they asked

"What are you bringing out of Mexico?”

I meant to return with verse

that fluttered with a delicate

Southwestern pulse,

and likely there were poems 

in vast numbers, like cactuses

standing under the moon,

tall as Victorian street lamps

along the streets of Algodones—

but when I passed,

I had nothing soulful to declare.

I did declare two root canals,

four extractions, and a partial bridge;

Algodones is famous

for cheap dentistry,

but I have nothing lyrical

to say about that--

unless to describe a bruise

like a jackdaw’s wing

stretching blue and black

from the corner of my mouth

across my cheek,

where the first crown was placed,