Lowell Jaeger - poet, teacher and former co-host of "Big Sky Radio" and "Storylines Northwest" on MTPR - writes about migration: "Since the beginning, humans have migrated from place to place, crossing borders, sometimes legally, often not. Our ancestors had one thing in common: they were looking to better their lives...Each new arrival in the West was part of this larger human flow, hundreds of thousands of homesteaders and gold-seekers who braved the hardships of traversing mountain passes and great expanses of desolation."
In his poem, "The Sleepers, David Ray has two particular migrants in mind:
"...After many perils they make it across
the border, manage to survive the desert,
search squads, spotlights, police dogs,
helicopters, klieg lights, and armed vigilantes.
But there is a great weariness after such
a journey, and rest is essential. Exhausted,
they lie down between rails, safe from
the hazards of snakes and scorpions.
The rotten rail ties called sleepers are like
slats of a bed, their frayed surface soft as flannel,
and perfume of the creosote is familiar,
like brush growing along barrancas back home..."
(Broadcast: "Reflections West," 3/4/15 & 9/9/15. Listen weekly on the radio, Wednesdays at 4:54 p.m.)