A Day Without An Immigrant, Dallas, Texas

At Pearl Street station,
two brown-skinned men

in painter’s pants stand
out in a sea of white

I am just one more face
sticking out in a crowd

& it is my privilege

that prevents me from
understanding why

the workers want to know
how to buy one-way trips

the automated machine
sells only one roundtrip fee,

back to where you came from

he isn’t asking me for change
says it clear enough so that

there can be no mistake
Sí. Yo sé.

But a dollar fifty is a lot of money.