B order S imulation ( I s T his L anguage A D esert A lso ? )
Has customs kept us from saying our favorite words as we cross? (madrugada, residiente, dentures,) or has customs left these worlds, sorry words, here in the desert to get picked at by the cultures, (ah! I keep tripping over these crossers) the vultures, till there’s nothing but word’s cartilage left to excavate?
I only know one forensic team and they’re a cast of characters in a procedural TV series (customs knows the crossing procedure, eyes closed) armed with technology that doesn’t exist yet and this is also what crossers feel like: a technology that doesn’t exist. But if no one can hold the desert culpable, if you can’t charge a desert with desertslaughter, who will step forward and answer the crosser’s last note?: Dear crosser, your digital footprint is more of a digital stain on the border simulator. Customs will always try and wipe you clean. Are you sure you’re sure which customs I’m talking about? Sometimes I’m not even, because custom’s words wear camouflage to ensnare us and in trap, there’s life. Don’t they say that? With restraint you’re freed? Then I’m the freest crosser in the border simulator. Customs found me sweating in a cave; they chased me there! And now riding in their jeep, where are we even going? I can’t tell and I cover my eyes with my hands because it’s as useful as looking out onto this map. Well, good thing I drew the map on my palms and my pants. I can peek at my hand but I’m so tired of looking at my hands, my map, my lap, but I need to because if not I’d be lost in simulation, and if I’m lost I’m detained, but it’s not so bad! Eventually customs gets tired of asking questions. I’m getting better at knowing this genre of detainment. I know you love our little interrogations in customs’ hut but lately, when I’m there with you, I’m not sure who questions who. But I’m an unreliable translator of customs and, I guess we all are. You’ve spent years practicing my border, these questions. And when you’re not putting the screws to me, you’re making other crossers screw together a new border fence. If you’re not screwing yourself into the border simulator then customs has you making adobe slabs and papier mâché walls for the bbq, crosser appreciation day. But you won’t last long if these kinds of days continue to appreciate. Customs appreciates you, alien crosser. Without you, customs would have no jobs and jobs equal worth in the border simulator. I’ll do what I can for you fellow crosser, like, when it’s my turn I might be able to knock out that borderwallpiñata, (jerking back and forth, hoping to make you miss,
18
