Lament from a Corner Booth at El Chepo’s

Steve Wilson

December 26, 2022

The developers are closing in. Mile after mile they’re downing trees 

and plotting. Seems everyone wants a piece of the Hill Country. Here 

at the thinning edge of town, road crews widen neighborhood streets. 

Overnight, acres of scrubland have been tamed by new two-stories.

Most mornings, hiding away again, I stop by El Chepo’s for chilaquiles 

and the small-town chatter from high-school coaches, a rancher 

whose cattle dog lies patiently atop his mud-covered pickup, retired couples

catching up over coffee. It’s all as familiar as their green salsa, fiery 

enough to coax open memory like landscapes from a fading past.

Steve Wilson's poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies nationwide; as well as in five collections, the most recent entitled The Reaches. His new book, Complicity, will be published in early 2023. He lives in San Marcos.