slideshow by Erik Aguilar
CSUC Grad Awaits ICE Decision
photo courtesy of Victor Escobar
by Leslie Layton
Dec. 1, 2011 update: Escobar said today that his case will be reviewed at some apparently undetermined time, and a Dec. 7 deadline for leaving the country has been lifted.
On May 19, 2009, Victor Escobar completed paperwork for graduation from Chico State and rented the gown that for many years he had dreamt of donning. Then he headed for his family’s home in Redding.
Boat Under the Orange Tree Poetry of Place
Under the orange trees,
he turned to me and said,
scratch that, all things are beautiful
could he feel
the kitchen table under my elbows,
the taut muscles of my father’s face
tendons like fists, then ropes
the wince, the rocking motion,
what an ugly thing
war is
fingering the dullness.
leaves of an olive tree,
a skirt that swallows dust,
a lime in a girl’s mouth,
skin stinging under fingernails
in the dives of birds over the orchard,
do I not love the world enough?
Sacred Poetry of Place
I. Indigo
Paint your city indigo
and place it at the heel of the mountains,
at the edge of the rainforest
Name it
for the twin peaks like horns,
or for a saint,
and pave it with cobblestone
Make a quiet
rainfall
and a silky
fog lift
and a sun that will
breakthrough
to reflect
whitewashed indigo
like the freshwater of the lakes in Chiapas
Mélange Poetry of Place
Hind calls me mélange with a smile —
but on a crooked side street she likes my accent
and in the hammam she tells me I scrub like the Moroccans do
Her father and I cannot speak
in this house in the Ocean,
but he taps the table
when the sheep in the loft looks at me
and points to the cages
when the yellow birds sing
Charter School Interrupted
by Leslie Layton
Sydney Cambra, who spent her sophomore year at the fledgling Chico Green School, scrambled this week to enroll at another school a week after classes had begun in the Chico Unified School District.
Cambra, who chose Chico High School, was forced to make the switch after CUSD revoked the Green School’s charter and reported it in violation of state law. Representatives at the school subsequently announced it was closing its doors to fall-term students.