“Nogales/Nogales” by Dan Grossman

Nogales, Arizona on the border: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Previously published in The Tucson Sentinel

Nogales/Nogales

The houses crowding the sharp hilltops
impressed me when I first saw Nogales, Sonora.
I saw those houses from Nogales, Arizona.  
That sight made me assume 

a sharp difference between the towns.
That was 30 years ago and now I’m back.
Now I see the recently built houses 
on the US side, right up to the border fence  accessible 

as if to mirror those in Mexico.
Before crossing the border, I spend some
time talking to a Senegalese migrant 
at McDonald’s. His destination: 

Chicago. Unbeknownst to him, 
he and his cohorts had been labeled
“military-aged males” by far-right media
pundits, as if they’re all terrorists

or some kind of covert army. 
But they just want the American dream 
like the rest of us. It’s the lack 
of difference that scares some people.

Find out more about Dan Grossman’s publications here.