Last petition or USCIS form I-130 spring night pastoral
for all my alien relatives
Ma, remember when we waded into the form field
and pulled pussywillow with inky palms,
Flicked buckeyes into checklist boxes,
Swung on drop down menus like banyan branches,
Cut terraces into the small print marshes,
Dragged yoked highlighters through,
Roved through the footnotes as you roamed
unthreshed paddy and we--
Yes, yes, I remember
We parceled our family into placeholders
that September and huddled in the warmth of an archive
set on fire