Monday, September 04, 2006

to cross the great divide


Since 1998, more than 3,000 people are known to have died trying to cross the border. While in 2002 there were 320 documented deaths, last year a total of 472 bodies were recovered. In the past 11 months, in Arizona alone, 124 people have died making the journey. Those deaths include more than a dozen women and children as young as three years old.


the border . . . more and more difficult to
cross . . . more and more women and children

            to be with their husbands


Samaritans


Humane Borders


No More Deaths


the tearful man who has his shirt half-unbuttoned, and a pair of worn leather boots sitting by his side. His feet are covered in oozing blisters and his legs are swollen.

hundreds of underground sensors buried all over the desert. They also use vehicle patrols and unmanned drones to locate their human prey.

pages of a Spanish version of the New Testament flap in the breeze. A bra hangs from an Ocotillo cactus. A few disposable nappies peek out from a torn, black plastic bag.


(omega)       food and water


easy living in the desert


scorpions, tarantulas and rattlesnakes

six people say       You've saved my life.  In your entire life
      if you hear that once


steep hills and dry river beds
sprained ankles or broken bones



then forced to walk back into






(the words lifted entirely in order of appearance from Michael Park's article in the UK Independent (9/03/06), "Mexican immigrants trying to cross the great divide")

4 comments:

Arcturus said...

Thank you! that's lovely.
I recently took a plunge -- still in gestation . . .

supersoling said...

Cool!
A new blogstop on the information highway :o)

boran2 said...

Borders. Artificial lines that appear on maps, imposed upon the land to divide us. I guess that being unified is a bad thing. Very sad.

XicanoPwr said...

Now that the Mexico's elite has bought the election, Calderon will be happy to send thousands more over here to face their deaths at the hands of our murderous bastards.