user’s manual/how-to Try crossing
out the word simulator then
take out the border You see
the border you want to see You’re separate from
those you call them They’re simulated versions
of yourself Who patrols
our thoughts at night You
know the ones that get across
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They’re better suited for Mexico anyways
*
In the border simulator you are the gift and you are the giver
of a wall between what you accept
and won’t let pass The border changes
perceptions so it’s a tricky cross south to the land
of they-have-the-papers You can’t carve away
or be separate from those you call them
They’re simulated versions of yourself
north of the X where you pass The border
exists because people walk over
It’s defined by those that cross Outsiders
think they shape it and they do
bind/separate
Cause some need to bind
to be separate
*
Simulator you become the gift and the giver
when there are too many people crossing In
reality custom brokers are overwhelmed with manifiestos
where you get tax back in exchange for proof
the goods have rebounded south
but in simulation manifiestos are the transporting
of farm hands They help you gesso and line up the words
¿Esos son Reebok o son Nike? on the border wall
*
Border is hiding/showing vulnerability because it wants you
among all the hybrid borders in this room you’re the
border border
dreamed as a certain grid
but it’s a simulation We wouldn’t want
it to keep going cause then we’d be navigating
New Mexico retelling the time we saw My Life
With the Thrill Kill Kult A fence of constant translation
The border of arrow never-erring
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In this simulation you don’t need to think
about identity because everyone is bordered
by the phrase #You speak with
an accent but don’t think in one
You’re unsure of your accent Outside of the border
you’re told you have one You’ve lived here
your whole life so you’re not sure#
#Your Uncle Frankie Fernandez helped build the W fence
in 2007 They were paying $20 an hour
to mesh the fence with the imaginary
border He needed the money
The simulator didn’t notice
it was already happening
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Draw a picture of a family negotiating the border
between themselves and their family in Mexico Slip
it into the mesh of the border fence#
Sega Nintendo / super genesis
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Nationalism in the border simulator
In the border simulator you spend all day
with the Salvis who’ve crossed/made it past Talk
about how hormonas in pollo make güeros jotos
In the simulator dialect/intuition are immigrant
As you crossed the border you were slimmer and
with debt you think in an accent
and with death you think in an accent
*
In the simulator empathy is ne’er a word
but it’s hard not to feel something near
its meaning as a border in your thoughts
about the void you cross
through and back again
de-simulating the border
the same way you came
Simulation categories:
Border living in Juarez
Border living in Nogales
Coyote in Chihuahua
Forced coyote tachas
Quinceañera at BB’s hall
Chambelan at Los Portales wedding venue
Stuck in Nogales Sonora waiting to pass again
Translating W-2 instructions for coworkers
Paying a mordida to keep your fence shop
Operation Streamline
Operation Streamline 2
Humane borders ride along
Visiting the comedor
Waiting to pass 1
Waiting to pass again
Write 100 more
*
You were carrying on like usual in simulation Not out
of fear but a longing for the border You wanted
to return What was the border?
A return to what you knew
a border of lock-the-workers-in or receding
into a version of yourself along the border
*
In each simulation the people
you meet their mouths
are open they can’t close The rain that doesn’t
fall for ages but then won’t stop in simulation
*
Debt and death in the border simulator
You can catch all the crossers you want in this one
The photos you find on the wall
Offer a map of how to cross You thought you forgot
how many borders had been made You could keep track
Use the cheat code where you flip the map
so it looks like we’re on top This view
allows for a purpose to cross
Many don’t want to leave the simulation
Their time is up and there are others waiting
*
When I look through the holes in the border wall
there’s a pair staring back at me %
The voice that belongs to those eyes says
“On this side everything is con weenie
and there’s only play station dos”
but these corrugated words
we leave behind on the bridge
can’t keep for too long before
they’re scooped up by customs
But what I really want to say about the border
simulator is that I can’t It’s from a simulation
we’re not used to anymore
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