Sandra Cisneros

"His Story"

I was born under a crooked star.

So says my father.

And this perhaps explains his sorrow.

An only daughter

whom no one came for

and no one chased away.

It is an ancient fate.

A family trait we trace back

to a great aunt no one mentions.

Her sin was beauty.

She lived mistress.

Died solitary.

There is a well

the cousin with the famous

how shall I put it?

profession.

She ran off with the colonel.

And soon after,

the army payroll.

And, of course,

grandmother's mother

who died a death of voodoo.

There are others.

For instance,

my father explains,

in the Mexican papers

a girl with both my names

was arrested for audacious crimes

that began by disobeying fathers.

Also, and here he pauses,

the Cubano who sells him shoes

says he too knew a Sandra Cisneros

who was three times cursed a widow.

You see.

An unlucky fate is mine

to be born woman in a family of men.

Six sons, my father groans,

all home.

And one female,

gone.

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