By Mark Miner

Are you illegal, papa?
How did you come here?
I came across the deserts in the dead of night
I was two days in the journey
then further in the van
We took back roads
because they watch the interstates.
Who watches them, papa?
La Migra, mijo. 
Who are they?
They are the government.
If they found papa, they would have sent me away.
Back to la patria.
But papa, don't you love la patria?
Of course, mijo.  But I love you more.
Is that why they don't let you work?
Yes.  So mama has to work,
And I keep you company.
Sometimes you work on the weekends, though.
Yes, because that's when the gueros do projects.
remember how I came home painted last weekend?
Haha, yes papa, I remember.
A nice man needed painters, and papa needed work.
So I got forty dollars.
Wow, papa.  Are we poor?
Yes, mijo, we are poor.
Why are we poor, papa?
Because papa is illegal.

 

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