<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="c-feature-sub_vast c-feature-sub" style="margin: 0px 0px 33px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="text-indent: -20px;" class="">Body of Rags, International Bridge Between the U.S. and Mexico</span></div></div><div class="c-feature-bd" style="margin: 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.3;"><div class=" isActive o-poem" data-view="PoemView" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative;"><div class="o-vr_6x o-vr" style="margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="c-epigraph" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 24px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""> Is it alive?</span><br class=""><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""> —neither a head,</span><br class=""><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">legs nor arms!</span><br class=""><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">...................</span><br class=""><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""> ... torpid against</span><br class=""><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">the flange of the supporting girder . ?</span><br class=""><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""> an inhuman shapelessness,</span><br class=""><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">knees hugged tight up into the belly</span><br class=""><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""> Egg-shaped!</span><br class="">—William Carlos Williams, 1950 visit to El Paso, from “Desert Music”</div></div><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""></p></div></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Yes, I am a body of rags lying<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">here on the bridge waiting for<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">a hot rain to wash me open,<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">dissolve me off the bridge<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">because this border is closed.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">I rot on the boundary line<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">and can’t enter Juarez,<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">pennies thrown at me<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">when a drunk El Pasoan<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">returns in the darkness<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">and sees my shape that<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">makes him hurry across.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">No head, decades ago they threw<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">it in the river without my screams.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">My arms were the first to go<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">when I couldn’t climb the wall.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">I can never leave this bridge.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">I live on the pure line that divides<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">countries and grabs my hunger<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">from sliding into Mexico with<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">my outstretched hands.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">I still have my knees.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">I used to be sold in Juarez and<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">smuggled into El Paso, the egg<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">that floated down the Rio Grande<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">to break hundreds of miles away<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">before being thrown back.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">I stay on the bridge and can’t move.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">Do not cross to El Paso without wiping<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">your shoes of me, one foot on US<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">concrete, the other scraping away<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">at my Mexican rags.<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">When I struggle against the wire fence,<br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class="">I make sure I salute two flags.</div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Ray Gonzalez</div></div></div></div></body></html>