At the Leon Springs Cafe

I once tried
to read my songs
of love and anger
at the Leon Springs Cafe
where some politically incorrect
Republican lady
kept shaking her head
each time I said,
“there’s no freedom,
in this here United States.”
And she did not confront me
but I clearly heard her say,
“Waiter, there’s a Chicano poet in my soup.”

Jose Montalvo

from Montalvo’s Welcome to My New World (1992), published by Saddle Tramp Publications.

“As a testimonial poet he speaks about the barrio while offering himself as an example of someone who has reached the state of a “mente concientizada” (socially aware mind), as Cecilio García-Camarillo described it in his introduction to Montalvo’s first collection of poetry.” Read the complete summary HERE at Bookrags.com

Montalvo’s biography at Wikipedia HERE