Stephanie Jackter - 4-30-2003 at 02:23 AM
Incisive commentary or schlock.....usually depends on point of view, especially when reading poetry - so you decide. But as most of you who know me
know, whatever gets in my head usually gets spewed out, for better or for worse. If you can't stomach the morose, then by all means, delete now.
I've been hearing about the anual "Icebreak on the Santa Cruz" contest we have here in Tucson, where some lucky entrant picks the day and the hour
that we'll pass the hundred degree mark for the first time each year (the Santa Cruz is a dry river bed).
It's become a day of dread for me, though, as I know lives will begin to be lost on a wholesale basis with immigrants dehydrating in the desert making
a very unsafe passage here.
I haven't written a poem in years but I went to poetry night at my kid's school tonight and this poem literally forced its way onto paper when I got
home. Don't even ask me how my brain jumped from Shel Silverstein to this, but I guess we all have our own imperatives...-Stephanie
(note: "puro lujo" {pronounced pooro looho}, means "pure luxury" and "coyotes" is pronounced the spanish way)
Ice Break on The Santa Cruz
The ice breaks
The desert takes
Another desperate soul.
Mexican dreams
Short the road seems
through seven circles of Hell.
Thirst grows, no means of return
Puro lujo to ponder why
The risk seemed well worth taking.
Unprepared to die.
The desert's gift, a river bed
water no longer runs.
They hunker, sweat and falter
"Coyotes" leave the bones.
Let's have a contest!
Postcards and parties
a/c and t.v. on.
The next group of hopefuls
await a tragic dawn.
Ice break on the Santa Cruz.
Try to guess the time
The first of this year's immigrants
lays down his head to die.