Susan Martell Huebner
3rd Place

At eight years old
with eyes the color of dark chocolate
and a smile wide with wishes
Felipe takes his father’s hand
and they begin the journey

Felipe travels holding two hopes
One, to earn money for his mother
He wants her to have new clothes
And the biggest hope, a bouncing sky-high
chance to get a bicycle for himself

Eight years old and now a veteran traveler
Felipe arrives at the El Paso border
Guatemala is far away but his dreams
still chatter within his little boy mind
during the days spent with his father
inside the fencing, waiting
at Paso del Norte International Bridge
Everyone sleeping on bare dirt, sleeping
so many families, on the bare dirt
He begins to feel hot and his eyes grow glassy
they take him to Alamogordo’s Border Patrol station
then to General Champion Regional Medical Center

It is 1AM
It is Christmas Eve
but there are no bicycles

Felipe tells his father he will not get better
He tells his father not to be sad
Felipe Alonzo Gomez gently parks his bicycle
inside his eight-year-old heart and
closes his chocolate brown eyes