March 11, 2005

My mother was killed in what the media described as "the most brutal murder in the city's history." She was raped, beaten, mortally wounded in the attack by a stranger who followed her home, and she died in the arson fire, 11/6/82, in the house referred to in the poem (how much that sounds like "home"), "Beneath the Shadow of the Freeway" — "Come in the house, Mama!"

Today is my mother's birthday.

Welcome to my house. ¡Welcome home!