by Alejandro Escudé
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| ‘We must demand that national leaders create a fair and humane immigration system, including a path to citizenship for immigrants, and a safe and fair asylum process for Haitians and all others seeking refuge in the US.’ —Xochitl Oseguera, The Guardian, September 28, 2021. Photograph: Félix Márquez/AP |
There are horses galloping
Within the word, horrible.
Lashing at migrants,
Centaur on the Rio Grande.
The water parts at first
To let in the fifteen thousand,
Refugees from Atlantis
Who bore a hurricane, a quake.
Children held aloft by mothers
With earth-bare arms.
I paint the scene for you
In poetic bronze, a cowboy
Breaking a colt in chaps
On a corner store in Sedona.
Only this bronze is flesh,
A border patrol agent in chaps,
Lassoing a sun containing
The origin of language.
Syllables like hooves,
Ten gallon hats, and boots along
The river the color of bronze,
Dividing a land formed
Of bodies from the land itself.
Congo moon, Texas slug.
Alejandro Escudé published his first full-length collection of poems My Earthbound Eye in September 2013. He holds a master’s degree in creative writing from UC Davis and teaches high school English. Originally from Argentina, Alejandro lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.
