Chamizal Dream

Moment of peace
                             overlooking the river,
         changing flow and shifting banks
switching as often as its name.

Monument of peace
        setting a treaty
                        settling a boundary
             tracing a war wound.

Man of peace
          prizing vigilance
                   celebrating synecdoche
                                 chronicling dreams.

Mothers of peace
                                working on this side
                  working on that side
                       working, always working

Moment of peace
                         sweating the desert
                 reading the lines
         gauging prospects.

In Chamizal,
between wound and salt,
between undocumented and legal,
to dare to Act to Dream.


(Obama speaks on immigration, Chamizal National Memorial Park in El Paso, Texas, 10 May 2011, Mother's Day in Mexico)