Terry Michelsen

(Ipomoea coccinea
Also known as Redstar)

The immigrant child crosses a border
Captured as a criminal yet escapes
Into fields where the wild flower relates
Its own story of survival in a rapture
I found an underground of protection
Followed it as far and wide as I could
Beyond fractured paths in a grassy wood
A process of natural selection

They still call me a non-native species
They will call you illegal alien
But they will never destroy your glory
The immigrant child enters white races
She blossoms like the Redstar on its vine
With her courage she receives amnesty