QUETZALCOATL, A Selection From THE SUN LOVES EVERY PLANET

Over the border they come
Year after year
Wave after wave
A sea of brown faces
Looking for a better life
Than the ones they left behind

I ask myself

Why do they need to come here to work?
What is wrong with their country?
Why can’t they make enough money there?

I don’t know

But
Something forces millions
To seek a chance
In another country
Familiar to them
And yet
Still foreign

They tell me
The border is a dangerous place
Desperate women
Will do anything
To get across
There are men who know this
They take advantage of it
They prey on the hopes of those
With nothing to lose
Those that come to America
To work the jobs that Americans
Won’t or don’t want to work
The wages are low
The work is hard
But they can’t say no

America is changing
The culture is changing
The language is changing
Someday
I don’t know exactly when it will be
There will be more people
That speak Spanish
Rather than English
In America

I suppose

In a larger perspective on time
It all makes sense in some kind of way
Centuries ago
Quetzalcoatl
And the people of the sun
Were invaded and conquered
By the Spaniards 
Now
The descendants of lost cities
Overtaken by jungles
Descendants of people
Who built pyramids
Gleaming in the sun
Are migrating north

Sometimes I tell people

The future is
Portable
Wireless
And Mexican

Before long

There will be more hot sauce available
On every street corner
Than you ever thought possible

They either laugh at me

Or say something to the effect of
Not in my lifetime
I still think English
Will remain the national language

I laugh back
Their responses make me wonder

If they’re deaf or blind