I peer into the night
& see plywood homes
& expanses of desert plains
In that darkness, that vagueness
I see the land's silhouette
& occasionally the shimmer of a
sheet of lights covering the night border
I want to tear away
these veils of darkness
I want to see the maquiladores
just on that other side
& their toxic pools in which
children play
& their babies born
without brains
Tonight under this one-day-from-full moon
is it as quiet for the INS
as I imagine it to be
Or are they, once more
beating, raping, killing a latin@
Do they really have a wall built
as I have heard rumored to exist
across desolate stretches of desert border
A wall to keep "them" out, from stealing "our" jobs
a wall to keep us in this capitalist prison
Are there really thousands of
National Guard troops patroling
that vastness?
Is that river out there full
in its glory of rushing water
Or is it just a trickle left
after a million thefts
by agrobusiness & industry?
If someone this night wades across
will he fall to this bank
writhing in pain as
something attacks his brain
Death holding him
until the last breath comes
in a day or two
What is it in that water
that kills?
In the empty spaces of this darkness
I want to see those houses
people are building
Because they can't afford rent
they can't afford to buy
I want to see the faces
of the authorities
who dare to rip apart
those hand-made homes
Do you dare destroy them
on a night like this
when the moon would
reveal you?
But on this night of a moon
one day from full
I nod off to sleep once more
tired from travel & boredom
The frustrations settle once more
within my womb
until I birth them
in a poem, a letter
a demonstration, a direct action
Until I once more am
conscious
& speak
Originally published in Canadian Dimension
Lorraine Caputo is a documentary poet, translator and travel writer. Her works appear in over 150 journals in Canada, the US, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa; 12 chapbooks of poetry – including Caribbean Nights (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014), Notes from the Patagonia (dancing girl press, 2017) and the upcoming On Galápagos Shores (dancing girl press, 2019); and 18 anthologies. She has also authored a dozen travel guidebooks. In March 2011, the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada chose her verse as poem of the month. Caputo has done over 200 literary readings, from Alaska to the Patagonia. She travels through Latin America, listening to the voices of the pueblos and Earth.