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"Javiar" 8 yrs old from Honduras. Detained since Feb. Still in custody in a Texas Detention center. Drawing by Billy Burgos on Facebook, July 11, 2018.
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America
breaks
babies from
crying mothers we
call criminals,
drags them
down to
encampments for
early agers:
frightened,
forsaken, sobbing behind
gates.
Guards, ordered not to
hug them,
hold them till their turn
in immigration court. Pleas of
“I want to go home” entered to
judges. Justice?
Juveniles,
kindergartners, toddlers
kind of
like your kid and mine who we
love, kiss,
nestle, protect from
nightmares of
ogres who steal
offspring from
parents who tried to become
part of a nation that
quietly se-
questers children,
rounds them up
right outside our doors as we
sip our coffee, read
stories to our own. Let’s
take a look at ourselves and
try to
understand our part in this:
“us” in the U.S.
vexed and perplexed that a
village of children
were locked up. Let us unite into a
wall of votes to
X out the reign of this
x-reality star who
yammers piss, twitters
yuk. Let us join together to
zip him up.
Susan Vespoli lives in Arizona, has an MFA from Antioch University, and has published poetry and prose in a number of online and print journals.