BORDER WALL, CALEXICO, CA
I had no reason to go on a road trip.
I had no reason to drive to El Centro, CA,
Except my car could not pass
The California Smog Test
Because the catalytic convertor would not reset.
My garage and a Star Smog Station told
Me to go on a long road trip. That should do it.
I drove south to San Diego,
Drove east to El Centro,
A wilted flower in the desert barrenness.
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Calexico was just 11 miles south,
Calexico, a border town with a border wall
Between,
Between us and Mexico.
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I stood before the wall.
I realized this moment was the reason for my road trip.
Presence is all. Paying attention is revelation:
Graphic starkness, male hard-on power
Assaulting women and children,
Iron ribbed steel shafts distorting the view
Of the other side. Barbed wired
Gulag, concentration camp mentality,
Fear of the other exposed in watch towers,
Babel like barriers, dividers, fortifications
Limiting, frontiers of illusions about superior
Tribes. The weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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I drove home the next day,
Skirting the west side of the Salton Sea
That on any day could cast an invisible cloud
Of toxic dust toward L. A.
I made images of the huge billboards that promised
THE AMERICAN DREAM: LOTS FOR SALE.
I took my car to my garage for the test.
It failed.