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Fear, longing, escape – 
Convicts harvested, hand-picked grains of wild rice,
black and brown seeds
hulled to white bones under a deviled sun.
When the prisoners break
the experienced make it across the river.
Others linger too long in the cool currents.
 
Three Hispanic men cut across the border at Heroica Nogales
where they are greeted as heroes by triumphal Federales.
The convicts, being men of the world, are careful to listen
for the sound of a key in the lock.