they count us just
things to be tossed,
faces without names
for ruthless might to
strike, mere newcomers
without human rights,
dreamers condemned
by the politics of hate,
children for the whip
hardened politicians
say God will praise,
young people painted
wrong by high-flown
speeches that aim to
hurl us back to lands
never known. they
surrender justice to
the impostor’s whims,
finding nothing in us
save fault, and forget
the nation has need of
our mysterious smiles,
our kind speech, our
promethean dreams to
make every corner of
this country free!

—h. j. Recinos