Privilege

We nonchalantly shrug, well 

accustomed to our rights

and the privileged rites of

citizenship in this vast land,

rich with opportunity and

immensely gainful natural

resources, the envy of the 

world community; peaceful,

orderly and secure, where a

multiplicity of origins

constitute the population.

And there is Faye, she of the

smiling brown face, awaiting

the status of permanence while

diligently nurturing other

peoples' children.  Her own

daughters have seen six birthdays

without their mother's presence,

the single gift they hunger for

as they grow into a maturity

that Faye has never witnessed.