Please Understand

I understand why
You fear me, of course,
not knowing that really
I’m not at all coarse.

You fear what I fear: the gangs
In my nation they prey,
and cause non-believers
as well as the righteous to pray

for peace, not prosperity,
I came to this country,
to live in a city or work
out in the country.

At the border I stopped
and followed each rule
believing your laws
would make honesty rule.

Ever since childhood I have known
My behavior I must police.
Now the governments of two nations
share my good reports from the police.

Please do not hate me, in spite
of what you’ve heard about my genes.
I promise to come with good will
and nothing dangerous in my jeans.

Kill this civilian, the gangs believe
And from this place, he’ll never cruise.
All of us here, even those not in
Gangs, will not escape those fearful crews.

Kilmar Armando Abrego García.
If my name you have now heard,
you cannot help but understand
and help release me from this herd.

Marco Katz Montiel, erstwhile salsa trombonist, (ell@/l@/su) composes poetry and prose in Spanish, English, and musical notes. Marco went to college late, and then alienated one university by publishing about blatant bigotry on campus and got kicked to the curb by two others for his involvement in campus union organizing. Still, he managed to graduate and to even publish a monograph on Music and Literature in the Americas with Palgrave Macmillan. His essays, poems, and stories have appeared in Ploughshares, Jerry Jazz Music, English Studies in Latin America, Copihue Poetry, Camino Real, WestWard Quarterly, Lowestoft Chronicle, and in the anthologies Cartas de desamor y otras adicciones (Univ. Alcalá), There’s No Place (Renaissance Press), and Volume IV of the Capital City Press Anthology. Read other articles by Marco Katz, or visit Marco Katz's website.