Do Not Forget This

 She was

caught in a snare we would

consider too cruel

for animals,

a teenager who traveled

a long way, tired and pregnant

and she twisted there, caught on the wires

like a fawn trapped

in the shepherd's fence

meant to separate the domestic

from the wild.

And bleeding she plead with her eyes

for herself and her child.

She was bound to a fate

of captured or drowned. 

But then she found,

deeper than the razor cut,

the hope was bled

from her body,

the future she fought for

fallen from her form,

and the silver lining of the American dream

was understood to be steel

and the promise of it--stolen. 

And do not forget that, 

because your ancestor fluttered in a womb

like hers

and a golden lamp lit their way.

And say what you will:

the dream of America beckons still.