Sunday, September 22, 2013

Border Bound

"There have always been borders
for a people considered other
in their own land."


Tejas 1938
terrible signs

she cannot read
but someone translates
you can not sit there
here is where we order
take our food to go.
In school, the teacher tries a smile 
as she shows their place
sits them all in a huddle
at the back of the room.
Sister says, speaking Spanish is bad
will be repaid with a ruler, or worse.


1944
the Rio Grande

bad medicine
having a father
found face down
in the river-border 
between here and there
both sides were his home and
dark spirits rise
from such deaths
to negotiate a crossing
to a place with no confines
the ultimate other side.

it is not so easy
if ones spirit clings
to this life’s plane
refuses to move on
for unfinished business
or reasons of their own
restless, they refuse 
to find peace
these spirit become walkers too
constantly crossing the living
trying to find home.


1954
the sleepy border

the border was not serious
not a force 
to be reckoned with
people and things crossed
that's how the word illegal
was made popular
because our own 
United States was lax
on how it policed this edge
of its new world.



2004
new world b-order

The bigger and better border is
no deterrent to a people forced
to work as slaves in sweatshops
and on US corporate farms
in Mexico
people find a way to survive
there are ways around
and under obstacles
the powers that be know this and
when it’s convenient, look the other way
their hate turns to a sick love, again.


Present Day
Nepantla

the neo-cavalry chases
new Apaches
Cora, Comanches, 
Huichol, Papago, Pima 
Tohono O'Odham and Yaqui.
There is an indigenous invasion
Thousands coming north
Terracotta people
Who all look the same
To those who hate
anyone who doesn’t look like them.


Coyotes the two
and four legged kind
perched on the ledge
observing prey lost 
on the outer part
the edge 
separating us
from ourselves
worse, from each other 
between these 
broken and split
places:


ambit
borderline
brink
bound 
boundary
brim
crest
circumference
compass
confines
edge
edging
end
frame
frontier
hem
lap
margin
perimeter
periphery
restriction
rim
selvage
shore
skirt
skirting
verge...



















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