J.P. White
Crossing at Nogales
I climbed into a twice-totaled bus with chickens in cages
and children squirming the aisle.
Someone had a guitar
And played with a sadness
That could have been mistaken for euphoria.
I had the luxury of youth and time
And nowhere I had to be except further South
Inside my own deprivation theory.
Everyone else had little more
Than a dismal job in Nogales
At the Alliance Ag Fertilizer Plant.
In half light, they opened a door that morning
And walked a long way to flag a bus
Across the border to somewhere better,
And now the ride back home.
I knew nothing about anything that mattered.
J.P. White is the author of the poetry collections The Sleeper at the Party (Defined Providence Press, 2001), The Salt Hour (The University of Illinois Press, 2001), The Pomegranate Tree Speaks from the Dictator’s Garden (Holy Cow Press, 1988), and In Pursuit of Wings (Panache Books, 1978). His essays, articles, fiction, reviews, interviews and poetry have appeared in The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Gettysburg Review, American Poetry Review, Sewanee Review, Shenandoah, Prairie Schooner, and many other journals and anthologies. He holds a BA from New College (1973), an MA from Colorado State University (1977), and an MFA from Vermont College (1990). He lives on Lake Minnetonka near Minneapolis.
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