Three Poems

• Citation: Vol. 4 No. 1
• Publication year: 2022

Three Poems

Mary Turck ^*

Magdalena

In Mississippi, Magdalena, eleven years old, stands in front of television cameras speaks into microphones her message unstoppable as her tears.

Government, she pleads, you have my parents let them be free with everybody else.

We planned for a year, government replies. This is business as usual.

Government, she cries, My dad didn't do nothing, He's not a criminal, I need my dad. Government, please put your heart . . . please.

Government has no heart, no brain, no courage. Government hides behind a curtain pulling levers, stealing parents, crushing lives.

Magdalena has no ruby slippers, no tin man, scarecrow, lion standing with her, no magic, only us.

[Page 134]

Hell Freezes Over

Are they coming? Someone tell me, is it true? Are they searching Cedar Avenue? Is there a raid in Richfield? Are they coming? Is it true?

Through the vacuum of cyberspace, can you hear the tears in Arizona where Guadalupe García de Rayos wife, mother, worker, checked in at the immigration office as she did last year and the year before and the year before that, but this year: arrested deported that very day because hell freezes over and turns to ICE

Are they coming? Someone tell me, is it true? Should I keep my children inside? Lock my doors? Stay home from work?

Through the vacuum of cyberspace, can you hear the screaming in El Paso, as six ICE agents enter the county courthouse and drag out a woman: her protective order against domestic violence gives no protection from hell freezing over and turning to ICE.

Are they coming? Do you know is it today? Is it tomorrow? On the street or in my home?

[Page 135]

Deportee

His carpenter's muscle and sweat earned two thousand dollars saved to send home to—parents...