to escape from?

Can free speech exist

in a country united?

What is the mainstream

and can it think for itself?

Is it necessary to make statistics entertaining?

Is objectivity more subversive

than passion?

Is a mistake more harmful than a lie?

Can animals tell a lie?

If bird calls could be translated

would they be considered political?

Is journalism poetry without metaphors?

Does the truth have an imagination?

Is the writer’s duty

to imagine the fit of another man’s skin?

If his own skin does not fit

should he complain?

Does paper feel pain

in the typewriter?

If the pen is mightier than the sword

how mighty is the eraser?

Restorers paint the mission church

back onto the desert,

sharpening its corners

where each plane of shade

cuts into sunlight

and deepening the darkness

in the folds worn by saints

whose old sparkle returns,

part Mexican, part Pima, lashed together

with ropes of Spanish zeal.

Only the faces

of the pilgrims remain

as they were, glowing

through a skin of candlelight.