Mestizo

Spanish and Indian
Or indigenous descent
Mixed race is now a thing
Of pride as it should be and
Was in the Mission Concepción
Near old San Antonio in the 1700s
As indicated by the eye of God
On the roof of a mission room blue
Like the sky until restored in 1988
When the soot of soldiers’ fires
Was cleaned away to reveal
A brown mestizo face with
A mustache and beard
And blue eyes which
Like the brown
Faced Indian
Virgin of
Guadalupe
Encouraged the
Local Indians to accept
Mission life of agriculture
And stock raising despite the
Mission restrictions on old
Indian customs of life but
None of this is noted at
The room where the
Eye of God stares
Down from the
Heavens blue
Sky above a
Mestizo
World
In Texas.
As I look up
I see the rays of
Light shine above
The mestizo face calm
Reassuring and painted
In yellow rays of the sun
Which in my photo are
Below as I have taken
My photo upside
Down which is
How Texas
Will seem
When
The
Governor
Senators and
Some future President
Are all mestizo and
Not like the blond
Jesus in today’s
Bibles seen as
Northwest
European
Rather
Than
Like
A Jewish
Carpenter
Brown faced
Dark brown hair
And eyes muscled
Short and strong
From turning
Wood into
Tables
And
Chairs
Or mestizos
From diverse
Peoples joined across
The Atlantic in a
Texas mission
Painted on
The roof.