[19/365] You're getting poetry again today

[cosmolinguist]

Yesterday when Mastodon was talking about the Iranian great-grandparents that the Home Office wants to deport, and thus inevitably about the cruelty and the unsuitability of the Home Office, someone I follow said

http://whysweetlie.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-heart-secretary-teresa-may.html
This is a poem by Wes White, an acquaintance of mine who married an American. She wanted to join him here, but could not, because their income was judged too low. May was the Home Secretary at the time, with control over immigration policy.

I thanked them for sharing the poems, which really are incredible, and they replied with a bit more of the story:

The story had a happy end: after a long campaign, she was allowed in. But if it was so hard for a white US citizen married to a (very eloquent) native Brit, it's so much harder for others. I have a lot of respect for immigrants.

Obviously as another white U.S. citizen married to a very eloquent Brit, I was sympathetic anyway. But the poems really are good. There are three, "The Heart Secretary," "Teresa," and "May." The last one is my favorite.

3. May
We married on the 18th, in a vineyard in Nebraska.
Matched cummings to Breton in our vows:
“i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart)” stood next to “My wife whose wrists are matches
Whose fingers are raffles holding the ace of hearts” -
In yellow sun and yellow dress
you looked like Disney’s Belle made flesh.
And you do. You carry and hold that card from my deck, my darling.
But this game was written by a joker,
and the hearts are trumped
by diamonds
every trick.

I'm glad it worked out for this couple. I wish it worked out for everybody.