Love Poem: Drifting Into El Rojos Cantina
Sonia Walker Avatar
Written by: Sonia Walker

Drifting Into El Rojos Cantina

He drifted into town
on his faithful quarter horse called Moose
who had a three-legged gait 
which gave him saddle sores
when drifting from town-to-town.

A desert wind hit them hard,
he pulled his cowboy hat further down his face
so the sand wouldn't sting 
his brown and and deep-set eyes,
he sees a faded sign in red lettering advertising,
'EL ROJAS CANTINA' as it bangs against 
the adobe and tiled-roofed building.

A pretty senorita wearing a ruby-red dress
greets the unshaven drifter as he stumbles 
through the double-saloon doors,
the cantina is dark and dank with smells of
stale cigarette smoke and spilled whiskey,
hunger and thirst overwhelm him as he 
ignores the stench of the bar and eatery.

The sultry woman is brazen as she sits 
at his table and begins to sing in her husky voice
while a man with a guitar accompanies her,
male townsfolk smile at her flamboyancy and
low-cut dress as she begins to sing in a seductive voice:

Stranger, you are handsome to look at
as I stare at you and purr like a cat,
let's get together and see
if something develops between you and me,
my name is Ventura, a lucky charm,
I want to become your woman and mean no harm,
please take me away from this place
so I will not die here in disgrace...

It didn't take much convincing,
Ventura and the drifter rode off together
into the red sunset after the sand storm on a 
long and bumpy ride on Moose with his three-legged gait,
hanging unto her billowing dress which blew over her face.

After years passed, Ventura lying down and close to death,
confessed she loved a man named Hildago who left her 
at the altar and filled her with humiliation before family and
friends until a drifter swept in and stayed with her until the end,
her man of many years weeps for the women who was 
his lucky charm in a red dress whom he met at the 
El Rojos Cantina during a tumultuous desert storm.