creating warmth

i used to sew quilts.  i would save what i considered the most beautiful pieces of fabric to sew into beautiful coverings.  i remember going to a theater company and collecting bags of satin and velvet scraps leftover from costume making for a Shakespeare production.  i turned those scraps into a beautiful patchwork quilt that i gave away at a yearly giveaway.  As i look through the pages and pages of text and dialogue that was not been used in this most recent production masquerading as my work, i realize that the best work got dropped on the cutting floor and left for me to re-vision.  a friend in the community has organized a healing ritual, after which i will began to sew these dropped pieces of text into a new body of work.

original and edited

desert crossing…
© 2008 marcie rendon

I am yaqui, pasquali, mexican, pronghorn, sand lizard, gringo,
I am the sons and daughters of migrant dreams
gringos come south looking for eye candy
Hot tamales and discounted medical care
mexica’s head north
Hungry for a slice of apple pie
With dreams bought on credit
And hopes Western Union-ed home each fortnight

I am four-legged
I came here looking for tender plants to feed on
And found a continent divided
The shell of turtle island scarred
Metal wall
Separates mother father
Sister brother
Lover lover

Barbed wire, (made in china)
tops concrete (mixed of mexican sand) wall
Electric current buzz hurts my ears
Israeli drone’s night-seek body heat
Across cooling desert floor
This string of lights
Dilates pupils with artificial light
I become frozen in the glare of manmade insanity

A continent divided
Which side prison
Which side freedom
Ancient migratory journeys become international flashpoints of insanity




DEER:

I came here looking for tender plants to feed on
I am pronghorn, sand lizard,
and the dust of fallen migratory dreams
I came here looking for water to quench
a drought induced thirst
And found a border
Of barbed wire and
Steel walls
Electric current buzz hurts my ears
This string of lights
Is the sun out of place
My pupils dilate and I freeze
Fight or flight not an option
Detained at this border
I see my family over there
They dance they hope they dream
Metal wall
Separates mother father
Sister brother
Lover lover
I am deer
Evolved for survival in dry heat
today my partner is over there
This wall interferes with mating rituals
Designed by centuries of evolution for survival
Deer is mother is father is life is search for food,
is search for diversity is lost partner is eating plants is hope detained

Immigrants playing immigrants

The first poem is the original version of text that i wrote for a scene in the production of Border Crossing. Following it is the edited down, watered down version that appears on stage.

While I prefer to use the word migrants for all the indigenous peoples who have travelled this continent since time began - exchanging resource, ceremony, knowledge and story - I had to laugh at my friend Jim Northrup's take on the situation of white folks portraying the migrants on stage - he e-mailed me the line:  immigrants playing immigrants.  It was the best laugh I've had about the whole disaster.