Magdalena
She waved
goodbye
with a smile
on her face,
not knowing
he wouldn’t
be there
when she
returned from
her first day
of the
school year
The tears pour
over her eleven-
year-old eyes
as she pleads
for her daddy
to be released
and back home
with her
Francisco
Armed with
three forms
of legal
identification
proving his
citizenship,
he travels
to a soccer
scouting event
He was
returned,
twenty-three
days and
twenty-six
pounds later
Miguel
An Army veteran
of two tours
returns home,
like many others,
with PTSD
He hides from
his isolation,
his pain,
in alcohol,
in drugs
Then finds the
country he served,
the country he
supported,
the country
he called home,
no longer
wanted him
Óscar and Valeria
A desperate
journey of
a thousand miles
finds a disheartening
hurdle
A line of hundreds
at a closed bridge
Across the water,
the hope
of asylum
appears tangible,
so closely
within reach
And reach they do,
as the father
carries his daughter
across
He asks her to wait
safely on the shore
while he goes back
to help her mother
cross
But waiting
is not a toddler’s
strength,
and she wades
after him
He grabs her
but the strength
of the water
pulls, sweeping
them under
Their bodies
are found
the next day
among the
thick reeds,
entangled in a
final embrace
14 Aug 2019
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