Zapotec Crossers (or, Haiku I Write Post-PTSD Nightmares)
i
Waves smack the body,
Nayeli, seven, drowning.
Spring: crossing season.
ii
Summer indicates
the migration will be “safe.”
Yej Susen, three, sprints.
iii
Inda Jani, one,
knows to crawl under the fence —
she was trained all fall.
iv
At four ai-em, Yao,
twelve, is sewn inside car seat;
winter will protect.
v
Itzel, five, plays dead.
Border patrol agents see
her body — they leave.
Source: Poetry (October 2018)