On Immigration

living here in 1 and 2 room apartments
with no car or AC or the chance either
their families close by or far away
men and women sending everything back
from their check from mopping floors
or laying block or making sure that
our lettuce doesn't go over 1.29 a head

I know that there are good reasons
for welcoming and sharing and creating
a larger world but the economics
get in the way when the supply exceeds
demand and wages fall even while
the lettuce keeps going up and the gas
and electricity and for just being alive

is more than our people can afford
who can't make it who were born into it
even living here for generations
their people living on the southside
or in the apartment buildings
who haven't been on plane rides or out
of the city to see what it is like to live

in the richest country on the earth