On Materiality

I need to say / the land / that raised me

isn’t a metaphor / a way of saying something else / enforcement zone
Arroyo smell of sycamore / grama threaded by diamondback / Violence
a language I was taught in school / spelling tests / & fists

full of diplomas / Hometown billboard says / ICE is always hiring
a sky of redtails / a flock of predator drones / systemic theatrics
Gnarled cottonwood / branches fluttering / with green cards

I was raised to tell / the truth / so I wrote

a poem for a historical marker / where I was born / & fell
white into history / mythical past / into mythical future
born on the edge / of a silver mine / named the Total Wreck

Tucson isn’t a dry place / Tucson is a dried place
Viejo isn’t a quiet neighborhood / Viejo is a silenced barrio
This land isn’t the border / a border was inflicted on this land

& I’ve finally learned to ask / whose profit margin / do I live in ?