migrants

Packing up clothes and shoes and toiletries

With kitchen items, medications and electronics

Everything we need to take with us

Going south to enjoy being warm in the winter months.

Loading up our car with our portable life

With bikes mounted hanging behind us

Driving the interstates 1300 miles in three days

Arriving at last near the Gulf Coast by the Everglades.

Here we are living a life of leisure

Doing our version of self-guided eco-tourism

Being active seniors keeping fit and relaxing

But all the while I keep thinking of the migrant caravan.

Their desperation lurks at the edge of my thoughts

Images of  young people with backpacks walking in groups

Images of families living in tents waiting to continue

Images of women and children running from tear gas.

I do not fear these people

Though they speak a different language

Though their skin is darker than mine

Though it is said they are criminals and worse.

I know what they want is what we all want

I know that they hope for a better life

I would welcome them with a hug for all they have suffered

Not punish them for being poor seeking work.

We need the aspiration of these people to keep on with it

In this place populated by the children of immigrants

Who came in search of the American dream

To follow in their footsteps making something of nothing.

I wish I could meet them at the border

Shielding them from the guns and hatred

Giving them safe passage past the police

Allowing just one moment of happiness.