‘With Every Eviction notice’

Downtown Chelsea, Mass., Historic District

— Photo by James L. Woodward

“The refugee’s run
across the desert borderlands
carved wings of fright
into his forehead,
growing more crooked
with every eviction notice
in this waterfront city of the north.’’

— From “Mi Vida: Wings of Fright: Chelsea, Massachusetts, 1987,’’ by Martin Espada (born 1967), American/Puerto Rican poet and teacher at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Here’s the whole poem.