ORDEAL

I have no rights
I have no privileges
How can I
When I am unknown

Statistically, I am not counted anywhere
Some people guess that I am here
But they cannot identify me
Because I am clandestine in this country

Many of us come for reasons similar to legal people
We want a better education
Increased economic opportunities
A better life

We venture into this wilderness
In search of reaping benefits
For ourselves, our family, our country

We work hard
We perform jobs that others refuse to do
We are underpaid, exploited and threatened
But we cannot tell the authorities

We are afraid of apprehension
We are careful
If caught, we are deported with only what we have on
How cruel life can be

My adventure has been costly
I sold everything I owned to come here
Now I am broke and destitute
I have lost my loved ones (or so it seems)
They are so far away
And I am here, alone, barely surviving
I am saddened by this experience
I have to be careful where I go
I have to be careful with whom I talk to
These are conditions in which I live \tab
Is it living or existing?

This is my ordeal
As I try to survive
The horrors
Of an undocumented person
In the United States

UNDOCUMENTED

Brainwashed by the media
Fooled by visitors to my country
I blindly let myself be taken away
From my enriched land

Far far away in Babylon
I am caught in mass confusion
Confusion that I totally despise
But due to misfortunes
I cannot return to my home, not yet anyway

You see, I left my country
Without the necessary documents
So I have to accumulate something before returning
I have learnt my lesson
But would others believe me

Being an alien - an illegal alien
Is very uncomfortable - but then
Survival is the order of the day
So good luck to all in the same predicament

Dr. L. Trevor Grant was born in Trinidad and Tobago and presently resides in New York. Dr. Grant is the author of four books including Undocumented, Illegal and Scared: The Experiences of an Illegal Alien (2000) and Carnivalitis: The Conflicting Discourse of Carnival (2004).