A torrent

of hibiscus was preeminent 

    the steps were steep

    and the garbage was piled at the street corner

as usual

    We walked past Don Pedro's old torta shop

  But it was locked

He had died ten years before

No one knew what happened to the

sisters who made tacos and sold them for 75 cents

on the street corner 

Also gone: the little family restaurant

and the mountain bike shop

and the abandoned old lot with piles of basura

and overgrown weeds

  - now a multi-storied condominium building

painted white and blue

With fancy flowerpots