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...