Citizen Illegal

José Olivarez, Haymarket Books (SEPTEMBER) Softcover $16 (80pp), 978-1-60846-954-3

Our president would like us to believe Mexicans are rapists, Libyans are terrorists, and a wall on the southern border will solve all our problems. His goal is to dehumanize brown- and blackskinned people, and his millions of supporters are only too happy to follow along. This is why poets like José Olivarez, a son of Mexican immigrants, are vital to keeping this nation from tearing apart—if only we could get Citizen Illegal, his debut collection, into the hands of the anti-immigrant crowd.

MEXICAN HEAVEN

all the Mexican women refuse to cook or clean or raise the kids or pay bills or make the bed or drive your bum ass to work or do anything except watch their novelas, so heaven is gross. the rats are fat as roosters & the men die of starvation.