i.
On the banks of the Rio Grande, metal strands. Wire teeth glisten, curled around the sun. On one side, refugees with muddy knees stumble banks. Exhaustion a lyric across their skin. There is still the torrent to travel. And then? An embankment where gnarled coils arc, ready to razor these human parcels. State troopers, starred and striped, watch on. One films on his mobile phone. This man is not a hero, but rather the sound of a whistle, blowing. Off screen, laughter. The men use slurs as a young Mexican mother collapses, is cut into multiples. Cruelty bloodies the shore. An eagle flies past, refuses to soar.

ii.
16,000 km’s away, I awaken, startled. In my dream, a boy drowns in a river as he tries to flee. He is 10. Too small to know the world. Yet caught in the maw of its rip. Families fall into metal hedges. The screams reach me as I watch from above, trembling. Cold sweat. Colder wet. Big men with filed teeth hyena themselves. There is no honour in the way they dredge flesh from the river. I make coffee, turn on the news. A man who is the shape of a whistle is filming the Rio Grande. My dream plays on the screen. A scream pervading outward to reach those who slumber. All of this to say: I am not a prophet, just open to the horror, unable to look away. Even with my eyes closed.

iii.
This is how the dream should have gone. Instead of razor wire, the state troopers build a bridge. There is fanfare as balloons arch in white, blue and red. Only confetti is the colour of blood. A band plays on either side: farewell, hello. There is applause with each family seeking refuge. The Americans speak fluent Spanish and Nahuatl. They eagerly shake hands. The woman faints into ready arms. When the young boy falls past river’s skin, he becomes a sturgeon and everyone cheers. New homes and documentation await. The Land of The Brave lives up to its name. For those seeking freedom, it is found. Everyone sleeps well at night, including myself.

**

Scott-Patrick Mitchell was Highly Commended in the 2024 Blake Poetry Prize and was a 2022 Red Room Poetry Felowship. Their debut poetry collection Clean (Upswell Publishing, 2022) was shortlisted for The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, The WA Premier’s Book Awards and The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. SPM is a queer non-binary immigrant who lives and writes on Whadjuk Noongar Country.

P76 issue 9: Poetries of place/ displacement/ diaspora/ odyssey: On-line Edition. Table of Contents