Barbara Kingsolver

1955 / Annapolis, Maryland, United States

Justicia

The feral incantations of our dreams
bring the wolf
through the door.
The southern sun is flint

on his charcoal eye.
The image of a person, tiny and perfect, shines
in the mirror of his cornea.
His orange pain becomes a desert sunset.
His hunger perceives the scent of blood
on the wind,

the sleep of sheltered animals,
everything
but borders.
The television says McAllen, Texas,
is closer to Managua than to Washington, D.C.,
and housewives in McAllen

check their own
possibly Bolshevik eyes in the mirror
and lock the windows.
Their peaceful constitution sings of liberty
and justice
and their outlaw dreams

say the wolf deserves a meal.
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