Wednesday, November 23, 2011

New Poem November 2011

Found Poem: Newspapers Report on Anti- Immigration Laws, October 2011


Vanishing from school.

Their lives taken.

Hands toiling above dark chocolate soil.

Withdrawn from Shelby, Alabama,

Maricopa, Arizona,

Ogden, Utah.

There are no precise numbers.

But there is anxiety

driving while fear goes shopping.

Tough luck. A judge ruled.

Citizenship documents.

How many Mexicans does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Agua Santa Potrerillos, Michoacan.

San Jeromino Solola, Oaxaca.

Los pueblos

donde abuelita nacío

y los nietos corren detras.

The children left behind.

On rain-fed corn farms

small plots tilled

and beans, pumpkins rise
to a near empty village.

Pobresa y pobreza extrema.

Tantos necesitan.

Tortillas. Workers.

Knives exposed. Clean shear blades.

To stand for hours in hair netting.

Statistics compiled. Midwestern

poultry plants. Russellville.

Crossville. Cullman.

Rest assured the law may lead to arrests.

Only five workers showed up on Thursday.

In an all-white town.

She met a Hispanic mother.

“Yes,” was the only condition.

Anonymity the result.