Calendars: All : October : November : December : January 2001

From: Premiación @ Ciudad Juarez

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4. Highway 2 // 5. Agua Prieta // 6. Iron age chalk horse // 7. Entering Ciudad Juárez

4.

Highway 2 stretches past dry desert lakes
and sandy cactus valleys between

isolated

stone

peaks .

Then it turns
and twists

into larger
mountain

ranges of
the frontier.

Here, graced with poplars shedding yellow leaves
continent rises to divide where you imagine

waters trickling

west to
Pacific

or east to
Atlantic .

Your bus with typically charismatic
Mexican driver bends swiftly into
his steep curves
hurrying to pass slow trucks.

On the crest, a sign welcomes: Chihuahua

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5. [Agua Prieta]

dusty busses @ side of road
entering town without moving
statue of man stretching arm
fulano politico or other

ice cream truck
beer store
medico 24 horas

frontier warehouse doors
no estacionarse

trucks parked
in back
near
untouched railroad tracks
running straight
from rusty

past maquiladora

tomorrow .

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6.

On the backside of the jagged mountain
west of Juárez, some someone created
an image like an iron age chalk horse .

Hidden behind the border, primeval
superstition welcomes future magic
drawing some ooo & ahh bus passengers .

Or maybe it's just a prophecy that
Mexicans make the world's best horsemen .

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7. [Entering Ciudad Juárez]

Bits & pieces of cars
concrete shacks
thicker fences
bend the highway .

From the rise of road see a haze of
river green in dry distance: that shine
from water eloquent of fertility .

At this near end of hills, closer view shows
cluttered desert junkyards & factories .

Scrapheap of abandoned police cars destroyed
in vain chase against corruption labled
Compra y Venta de Chatarra
(that is: the buying and selling of trash) –

yet that shimmer of Rio Grande green –
anything for the big yankee dollar .

Yonke = junk . Yanqui = yankee .

You are too cynical, poet. Think of
the jobs these places make! Look from paper
verses, see the irrigated traffic
glorietta sign painted road green :

Bienvenidos A Ciudad Juárez
La Mejor Frontera De México
Maneje Con Cuidado

Welcome To Juarez City
The Best Border In Mexico
Drive With Caution

Ah – there it is ! Coca-Cola factory !
Ssssss... with its ice-red sign, yes....

I'd like to give the world... what ?
Success without trash ?

Stupid dreamer : go dump it somewhere else .

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All Calendars OR August 2000 : September 2000 : October 2000 : November 2000 : December 2000 : January 2001 : February 2001

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Copyright 2001 Daniel Charles Thomas

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