Do it the right way

A poem that examines the visible traits of someone born in the Americas who is still not recognized as “American.” It explores the tension between institutional definitions of the “right way” to migrate and the immigrant’s understanding of doing it right through work, sacrifice, and devotion to family.

Freshly brewed coffee,

black irises,

curly hair like cabbage on the ranchos.

and hips as wide as the Amazon River in spring.

Papers in hand;

none of them say he is a citizen,

but all his features scream that he is America.

He begins to justify himself,

on the edge of a boundary that is invisible to his eagle eye,

with the backpack slung over his shoulder

that feeds all his people.

And the thing is, inside

he feels that he is doing the right thing,

and in the face of this affront,

there is nothing left but to believe his heart.

Duality

A poem about my own internal duality, expressed through two separate languages. Written in English and Spanish without translation, both versions exist side by side as independent pieces.

Because in every individual there is always the potential to be two,

and by dividing that love, we will become one again.

In greatness and in baseness,

where the honest man and the liar pass by,

the one who is unmoved by anything and the one who is moved by everything,

the one who transmutes shadows, darkness, and atrocities

into a ray of light, of sunrises and kindness.

Todo junto, le corre la misma sangre,

y en el hervor de cada arteria,

viene la vena recogiendo todo a su alcance.

Llamados a abrazar lo nuestro,

lo que divinamente de a dos se ha repartido,

suavizando los asperos rincones de esta madera fresca

con la que un dia el creador nos ha construido.