Last night I dreamt
about my neighbors
No, not the ones who
live nearby

The ones whose cries
I can’t get out
of my head

Whose faces
brown and tired
have endured more
than I’ll ever know

Like the women I’ve sat with
and listened to
whose stories of homeland
sound like nightmares and weeping

My neighbor
who worries her son
may not come home
while I hold mine

Whose cries for safety
respect and humanity
fall on deaf or hardened ears
the color of mine

My neighbor

who my Teacher taught me
to love as myself

and that this
is like loving God

Her face in the face of
the weeping mothers