Beneath the Chatter

Archie loves Betty, but Betty loves Petra

and Danny wants whatever the person next

to him has. And the poor want to be rich

and the rich want to live forever. And Henry

fears Miguel and Miguel who has done nothing

fears the white police. And Jorge tries to explain

to his son what a border is, why this handful of

dirt is different than the dirt across the river.

Yet in the dark soil we finger when no one is

looking, we're silent as trees; inching through

the earth while growing toward the light.