Poetry by Alexandra La Golosa
“I have a lot of stories to tell, and I hope you will listen. But maybe I should tell these stories, if only for the sake of their heroes — my fellow immigrants in detention, still waiting for their freedom to come.”
A Letter to the Judge
Do you like your job? I bet you do.
One can only be a judge if he loves.
Did you see her body hitting the floor?
Did you hear the cry of the crowd?
No. She will be just an unfinished case for you.
But please, rest a little from your deeds,
So plenty and important.
I want to tell you quite a real story
That happened in my native town.
I mentioned once that I was working in the peace court,
Yet did I say my brother was a judge?
I think he is a good one. From the word ‘judgment’, of course,
He never knew the mercy. He always stood for law.
He was aware of his role in people’s lives.
He never liked the people. Just his job.
He acts so proud, speaking during drinks and cigars.
He punishes the police like a messy dog.
Trust me, he doesn’t think a lot
About persons sitting in the chair
In front of him.
He is a perfect justice, some may say.
But getting to my story…
Once was a woman, charged with theft not great,
A single mother lived in gruesome place.
She did not come to hearing and he said:
“OK, let’s make the marshals sniff her trace
To put her in the jail and there wait
For my decision.”
But when the marshals broke into her flat
She was already dead; was hanging from the ceiling.
Her infant daughter’s lying in the bath,
Killed by her mother, still a little bleeding.
They found a note, a suicidal one,
Where she explained why everything was done:
She was alone and hopeless in this world
And after speech the prosecutor told
She understood that prison’d be her lot.
She wrote: ‘I can’t leave here my dear child
For nobody will care of her life;
I’d better take her to the place I go
Than give to the freaking world I fear and know’
So that’s the end of case — beyond the law.
And do you think it has impressed my brother?
He felt a guilt in some uneasy night?
No, not the slightest: he knew, he was right;
He’s always right — on one side or another.
He’s never seen himself that dreadful sight —
The stabbed girl and her unlucky mother.
His dreams, I’m sure, are filled with grace and light…
And I’m the only one to whom this might
Look more like curse. I wonder still — what was
The last thought in the mind of the poor child?
Alexandra was released from the Eloy Detention Center on April 21, 2016, after 444 days in detention with the support of Mariposas Sin Fronteras, Casa Mariposa, and Casa Libre en la Solana in Tucson, Arizona, who raised funds for her $5,000 bond. Over 50 people, many of whom are writers themselves, contributed to her campaign, including poet Franciszka Voeltz who wrote custom-made “Poems-to-Go” for contributors.
Alexandra Gologusova is now an Associate Editor of IMM Print.