A meditation on immigration "Maps"

ABOUT THIS POEM

“This poem is a meditation on immigration and on dreaming of a borderless
world. I am a daughter of immigrants and so I wanted to honor my parents and
their journey. It is dedicated to Marcelo, a great poet, a dear friend, and
someone who has suffered deeply due to our need to draw lines.”
—Yesenia Montilla


"Maps"

Yesenia Montilla

For Marcelo

Some maps have blue borders
like the blue of your name
or the tributary lacing of
veins running through your
father’s hands. & how the last
time I saw you, you held
me for so long I saw whole
lifetimes flooding by me
small tentacles reaching
for both our faces. I wish
maps would be without
borders & that we belonged
to no one & to everyone
at once, what a world that
would be. Or not a world
maybe we would call it
something more intrinsic
like forgiving or something
simplistic like river or dirt.
& if I were to see you
tomorrow & everyone you
came from had disappeared
I would weep with you & drown
out any black lines that this
earth allowed us to give it—
because what is a map but
a useless prison? We are all
so lost & no naming of blank
spaces can save us. & what
is a map but the delusion of
safety? The line drawn is always
in the sand & folds on itself
before we’re done making it.
& that line, there, south of
el rio, how it dares to cover
up the bodies, as though we
would forget who died there
& for what? As if we could
forget that if you spin a globe
& stop it with your finger
you’ll land it on top of someone
living, someone who was not
expecting to be crushed by thirst—
  

Copyright © 2017 Yesenia Montilla. Used with permission of the author.
illustration

Yesenia Montilla is the author of The Pink Box (Willow Books, 2015). She
lives in New York City.