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Friday, May 11, 2012

CROSSINGS

by Margaret S. Mullins 

                                   Justice department sues Arizona sheriff
                                           --NY Times headline, May 10, 2012

Image Source: ADINEWS

in southeast arizona this time of year
immigrants from el salvador,
guatemala, and mexico
flock exhausted over the border
looking for food and just enough space
near fresh mountain water
to settle, build, raise their babies.

tiny anna’s hummingbirds
handsome phainopeplas
elegant trogons of black, red and green
carry no papers of citizenship
are asked for none
by vigilantes carrying guns.


Margaret S. Mullins lives in Maryland. Her work has appeared in Loch Raven Review, Creekwalker, Little Patuxent Review, Magnapoets, New Verse News, Sun, Alehouse, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, and several anthologies. She is a Pushcart nominee and the editor of Manorborn 2009:  The Water Issue (Abecedarian Press.)  Family Constellation, a chapbook, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. 
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