Benavides, Texas, 1906

No one lives in the town, except the grocer who keeps the general store.
Each month, ranchers arrive for corn and beans, sacks of flour, milled a county over.

A two-month-old paper, just arrived, translates, "War in Mexico."
For ranchers, the headlines read, "Expect Relatives."

Priests from the monastery ride through ten towns
to hear three weeks' confession and say Mass in the schoolhouse.

A photographer lines up families on front porches and yards;
one rancher includes his prize watermelons.

Marissa Martinez lives in Seattle and earns her living as an engineer. Her work has appeared in several journals nationally, and she is completing a poetry manuscript entitled Genealogies.