Pale Irretrievables

Salvadoran migrant Oscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his
nearly 2-year-old daughter, Valeria who drowned trying to cross
the Rio Grande river in Mexico to Brownsville, Texas, USA.
Courtesy: The Washington Post

Could you please hold that line?

Before you rock your shine

Come let me take you right

Down to a friend of mine

She’s down by the Rio Grande

Tucked in the death damp

T-shirt of the young man

This tragic beauty once called ‘Dad’

Dead

Did I tell you she died?

The river took her head

And banged it against its spine

Again! Again! Again!

Again! Again! Again!

             Again!

Until locked in that final embrace…

Even so she held her grace

Maybe she yelled his name

As the current slapped her face

And choked her

Until all she did was whisper

Down by the Rio Grande

Lay Valeria

Marooned on the banks among the reeds

Tucked into the t-shirt of a man

Named after the famed award for movies

Down by the Rio Grande

Is a picture less than grand.

Akpan