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California Forum

Poem: Keep Away

Migrant children are released from detention by immigration authorities at a bus station in McAllen, Texas, July 3, 2018, as the government struggles to reunite thousands of families separated at the border under a Trump policy.
Migrant children are released from detention by immigration authorities at a bus station in McAllen, Texas, July 3, 2018, as the government struggles to reunite thousands of families separated at the border under a Trump policy. NYT

Were they snatched

As casually as

Say… a hat

(Unmarked with a name)

Maybe for a game of

Keep away

By the schoolyard bullies?

Who may well return it

When they tire of the fun

Or as likely hurl it

Way beyond the chainlink fenceline

In a most showy display of power.

The end like as not

In a tangle of tree limbs and briars

Decaying leaves and animal droppings

Where if by chance found,

No chance unscathed.

Karen Ganon is a public school teacher in California. Reach her at kganon55@yahoo.com.

This story was originally published July 9, 2018 at 8:00 AM.

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