A War

My messages ping
30, 40 times a day-
ICE agents spotted.

In store parking lots
outside schools, among tourists
riverside downtown.

Eyeballing, taking anyone brown.

Middle of the night
family sleep shattered as a
helicopter lands.

Kids don't understand
the zip ties around shaking hands,
their parents vanished.

the working folks who
spend money, pay bills, dream, hope -
painted as monsters.

Painted as monsters
while masked invaders point guns
in a war of their own creation.