Love Poem in a Time of Climate Change (Sonnet II)

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         after Pablo Neruda

My love, I have crossed so many borders

for a kiss, smuggled by strangers,

I followed dream tracks in the desert,

where there’s no spring, no mercy, only this

mass migration towards your refuge.

My love, I walked amongst labor

that global capital forgot, traversed bridges

of bones, and witnessed populations

collapse around me, with the hope

to become your citizen. My love,

embrace my desperation, my day’s labor,

touch me, as if we’ve always been

interwoven, from our cars

all the way down to our cancers.