El Principito (The Little Prince) in Tijuana

Railroad track in Tijuana Photo by Dan Grossman

El Principito (The Little Prince) in Tijuana

The women dangling from the bridge,
naked and upside down, gutted
like fishes, weren’t like anything
he’d ever seen on Asteroid B-612
but the cartels weren’t active there.
He constantly thought of the little rose
he’d abandoned on the tiny rock.
It’s a regret he should have expected
but our prince, confoundingly naive,
abandoned all hope for future
happiness for a seat on a vehicle
piloted by his purple-robed namesake—
The Artist formerly known as—
who dumped him off in TJ of all places. 

El Principito found himself walking
railroad tracks that marked the border
between Sinaloa and Tijuana Cartel turf.
It’s along these tracks that he found
the coquette barrel cactus with its little
yellow flowers.

 “Ayúdame” the cactus said.
“My little thorns are growing too fast
and are now in the way of the trains.”

 The prince replied, “What am I supposed
to do?” 

 “You can stop the next train
and transplant me somewhere safe.”
the cactus suggested.

The prince didn’t know much about trains,
and their lack of braking capacity.
But he was seeing with his heart,
as it were, and would do anything
to help the cactus he had fallen for
so quickly. So when the next train came
barreling down the tracks, the prince 
held out his hand to make it stop.
It didn’t, of course, and El Principito’s
untimely end was recorded as TJ’s
first non-cartel related death of 2021.