El Paso- Ciudad Juárez

I've hopscotched cross-country riding Greyhound buses waiting in dirty terminals - those havens for drifters... And I recall my arrival here, ( it was ten years ago, or so...) and your sister, Carol who picked me up... Carol is so pretty ( she's made-up like Selena) and her kids were still little... ( now the middle boy is a delinquent and her only girl, back in Zacatecas.) Your mother was there too, pious India, may God bless her soul... They were my only welcome- as I came here, not a tourist, but thrust by fate, government policies - a loving wife. I followed your deportation, my fear, ( accounts of violence) And still, I crossed the bridge, trespassed international borders, stepped into the third world... ( It is not my parents' Iron Curtain) Though quickly, I came to love this troubled city and so much is now different- ( more than a bridge separate us) Ciudad Juárez, I still think of you as- forever my home.