CHECKPOINT

by Alejandro Escudé


San Diego County middle school teacher Shane Parmely was detained for more than an hour by Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint in New Mexico because she refused to say whether she was a U.S. citizen. Parmely’s family helped her film the incident, which she posted Friday evening on her Facebook account in several segments that were widely shared. Parmely told Border Patrol agents that she believed she did not have to answer their questions. One agent showed her a card listing immigration law and a Supreme Court case decision that give Border Patrol agents authority to operate checkpoints within 100 miles of the border and to ask questions about citizenship without warrants. —Los Angeles Times, July 25, 2017


You can read the officer's question
On the road: "Citizens?"

It is written in moon-white
And it is perfect in its dimensions

Like a geoglyph or an alien crop circle.
It will not wear away.

The teacher's answer is also on the road,
Afloat like a raven's feather

That refuses to succumb
To the asphalt, a ragged wind-bone,

A time traveller without an end.
The tumbleweed heart of New Mexico.


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.
href="https://img.youtube.com/vi/gKUI3ZNlCl8/default.jpg" title="View image">
       

Related Stories

 

Related Posts :

  • NO RESOLUTIONby j.lewis Image from Breaking Burgh again, the ball drops, but does not break its descent carefully engineered to delight again… Read More...
  • SWATTINGby Pepper Trail When the police surrounded a house in Wichita, Kan., late Thursday, they expected to find a gunman who told a 911 di… Read More...
  • DRIVEN THRUby Deirdre Fagan When you are 13 and poor, even Taco Bell has an allure. The Monte Carlo that held us
 had a sheepskin bench … Read More...
  • THE BOSSES’ DREAM: ONE SALARY, THREE WORKERSby Gil Fagiani Juanito stands with his back to the counter, customers shouting out their orders, his apron spotted with ketchup,… Read More...
  • SHOVELING OUT A MOOSEby Skaidrite Stelzer most of us do what we can if we believe we can do it if someone has not whispered in our ears that the world is too c… Read More...

0 Response to "CHECKPOINT"

Posting Komentar