Borders

I cannot help feel a pang of jealousy

When I see a bird fly over me…

It is free to fly in any direction

No border can restrict that freedom…

 

Then I shake my head at the sheer absurdity

Of comparing myself to a bird that is free

I am a mere human, who happened to be 

Born on the wrong side of the border, you see

Where poverty, drugs and organized crime

Were making life difficult with the passage of time

My nest was in peril, unlike a bird I could not teach

My children to fly, to free them from the enemy’s reach…

 

 

Leaving home is never a decision taken lightly

The hazards of crossing the border were known to me

Yet what do you do when each day is spent in fear

Of losing the ones you hold near and dear?

I could keep existing, but it killed me each day

To watch childhood being taken away

From my children- I had to find a way to provide 

A better life for them, to venture across the divide-

We could swim across the river treacherous

Or venture through the scorching desert perfidious

We could perish, and attain salvation thus

If we made it across alive, that would be a plus

 

Yes, we survived, my children and I

We crossed the border, our hopes did not die

 

We are undesirable statistics, we are aware

We work hard, knowing life is not fair

Life on this side of the border is not easy

But my children have been restored the carefree

Childhood they deserve-that was my sole aim

In crossing the border, yes, I take the blame

 

The birds are flying south, the border they will cross

While I thank God for my gains, and mourn my loss..

Image: (Painting/”Crossing Borders”/Gwynne Duncan): https://longislandwins.com/herstory/enstories-liberation-will-walk-endescaminare-hasta-el-final/