Richard Morrison
Crossing the Border, 1987
Pure golden light
Beams from the top of the billboard
Upon the bronze windsurfer
Riding a bottle of Corona Extra,
Bobbing in the cerulean surf.
But we settle for the shallows
Of Cocoa Beach this Labor Day,
Tipping back our imported beers, cruising A1A
In four-color separation.
Someone squints into a desert sun,
Recalling, vaguely, a spaghetti western.
Drinking and driving, we’re crossing the border.
Not quite like the immigrants locked in boxcars
On the flats of Sierra Blanca,
Baking slowly under pure golden light
For a chance at better jobs, more breathing space.
Better for them to have stayed at home
Taking their siestas, thinks the border patrol
As he drags another body from the boxcar,
Throwing it on the pile.
Better to have stayed with their brothers,
Pissing in the brew, exporting it
To rich Americans lounging on their verandas,
Crossing the border with a twist of lime.
EDITORS NOTE: On July 2, 1987, Border Patrol agents in Sierra Blanca, Texas, found the bodies of 18 people who were trapped in a boxcar in 120-degree heat after attempting to cross the Mexican border into the United States. Less than two weeks later, the business section of The New York Times ran an article about the success of the “Cross the Border” advertising campaign for Corona Extra, which suddenly and unexpectedly had become the second-best-selling imported beer in the United States. This poem was written in 1987 in response to this confluence of events.
Richard Morrison’s poems have appeared in Provincetown Arts and Christopher Street, among other publications. He holds an MFA in poetry from Columbia University (1991) and currently serves as editorial director for Fordham University Press.
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