Melanie Perish

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After a Radio Interview with Recent Immigrants

In a level voice,
I heard a woman seeking asylum
say that the Border Patrol—
instructed to call migrants
animal, invader, criminal –
do this and sometimes
in several languages. 

No one reprimands
patrolling agents on horses
who use riding crops or reins
to whip the immigrants
as they stand or walk
at the border.

She believes the great grandfathers,
the great-great aunts the third, seventh,
and tenth cousins of these enforcers
are vigilant ghosts. They must weep,
if they can weep, she says.
Each lifts a wing to cover their faces.

Melanie Perish – a gender-fluid crone – is interested in poetry and poets. Her work has appeared in Sequestrum, The Meadow, Rust & Moth, Calyx, Abandoned Mine, Sinister Wisdom, Common Lives Lesbian Lives, Caesura, and other small press publications. Melanie’s work was chosen for Nevada Humanities’ Double Down Blog and she was a featured poet for Moon Tide Press recently. Passions & Gratitudes (Black Rock Press, 2011,) The Fishing Poems(Meridian Press, 2017,) Foreign Voices Native Tongues (Single Wing Press/ Blurb, 2021) are her collections. She is a member of Poets & Writers and is often featured in online and in-person poetry events.