Alien Boy Draft

The conversation starts

with the reasons to deport me:

-coming into the country on a bus,

held by a stranger who smuggled babies

for a living

if this one cries, it’s over

but I don’t,

I am enveloped in a blanket

that matches my skin

                              lady is that a melon?

                               No it’s my son,

                              he slid out wearing a jade sheen

                              and the nurses said sorry

                              we can’t scrub it out

It lasted into adulthood

and here I am,

sipping gin on the margins,

putting up my feet in the periphery

The traveling butterflies learn

to land on my toes

They say, with feeling            MIGRATION IS BEAUTIFUL

We are MONARCHS the Heavier the Crown the Higher the Altitude

From up here

I can see balloons

spelling out my alien number —

with these you can search for the spot

where diplomas and certificates

barely cushion my fall.

I still break

in at least seventeen places

oh lord,

the rubbernecking

when strangers start sniffing my blood

it’s green

it’s mint

The news stays to count

all the people

who couldn’t get enough.