The Border Interrogation - October 25, 2022 at Open Mic Surgery
Channel: Poetry for Cowards
Date: 2022-11-15

The Border Interrogation 

The agent takes our passports 
and asks the standard questions 
to which I pleasantly reply  
the appropriate responses. 
I have the luxury of knowing  
that everything will be fine, and  
I will drop my boys off at grandma’s 
and return home. 

But for every question I am asked, 
there is a moment of mounting, real fear 
that a part of me is there 
on the passport page, 
whispering on his little screen 
the terrible things I did 
that I had 
conveniently  
forgotten 
because I could. 

He lets me go 
and I drive my boys into Ontario 
with the bodies of those I tormented 
in the Toyota Camry’s leaky trunk, 
weighing down the back tires 
by a subtle, 
barely noticeable 
inch.