MARÍA
Washington, DC, 1985
When El Salvador grew too war-torn
for children, a church helped my parents
bring me and all my brothers and sisters
here, where danger is a word I see
all around me, at school,
every day.
Guns on the street
are just as perilous as guns
in battle.
Refugee and asylum now seem like words
caught between shattered fears
and flowing
hopes.