People aren’t illegal; they can’t stop us all We deserve equal rights Wait your turn Do things right. Human rights are your rights, my rights, which rights are the right, and is this land ever really free? We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us. This land was stolen from my people from your people from their people—stolen
No one should live in fear Borders were created by people for power. No one is above the laws that make America great again, make empathy great again: Repent of your sins #Help us all a la verga What the fuck are we?
*The lines from this poem were collected from an exhibit entitled UPROAR! The Art of Social Engagement: A POP-UP Community Exhibit at IMAS in McAllen, TX in March of 2023.
Melissa Nunez
Three Questions for Melissa Nunez
What inspired your choice of medium(s), genre(s), and/or form(s) for "Found Poem on Borders"?
The inspiration for this poem was a collaborative exhibit at my local museum (UPROAR! The Art of Social Engagement: A POP-UP Community Exhibit at IMAS in McAllen, TX in March of 2023). A found poem felt like the most natural form for this content. The form reflected the source and the engagement with the piece I experienced as I examined it. My eyes were pulled to the same lines over and over again and these lines became the foundation of the poem.
Can you walk us through your creative process for this work?
The UPROAR! display was visually striking and the words written by museum visitors, members of my community, were powerful. I felt a pull to read each note, analyze each image, to photograph the emotion unfolding on the white space provided for this dialogue about borders and immigrants. I collected the most arresting messages and found myself organizing them on my own white space. I crafted the punctuation, pauses, and positioning of phrases to represent the stark dichotomy of opinions that affect so many lives in so many places across the globe. The call-and-response flow of the poem represents this back-and-forth argument I have heard in my community, in the news, in the (broken) promises and callus policies of our government.
What is the significance of this work to you?
In my experience, many people find issues like immigrant rights and border policy to be as black and white as the lines on a map. Living in a border community, it is very clear to me that this is not the case. People, families, languages, cultures are not things to be contained by borders, walls, jail cells. We are more than this. We are better than this. And I feel it is so important to continue to use whatever means we have available, our votes, voices, and actions, to call and fight for the fair and just treatment of all people — for our humanity.
Melissa lives and creates in the caffeinated spaces between awake and dreaming. She makes her home in the Rio Grande Valley region of South Texas where she enjoys exploring and photographing the local wild with her homeschooling family. Her work has been published by so to speak, Variant Lit, and Scrawl Place among others.
