Camped on the Border

Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet,

Drinking her tea and typing.

On the morning I woke up next to the Mexican border, both my chairs were broken. In the pre-dawn morning and anxious to type in the calm of the day, I saw the blue exercise ball in a lumpy pile next to the computer desk. It had been losing air since El Paso when I discovered a small hole, which I repaired, hoping the duct tape would hold it. So I pulled out my Cabela’s camp chair, and sat down…only to fall onto the metal frame.

“Where’s the chair?” I asked in the soft glow of string lights hanging overhead.

I turned on an overhead light to give it a mechanic’s stare. It appeared the screw holding the fabric had come loose, which meant it was probably on the floor of the cab. I didn’t want to look for it now, so I pulled out the step stool, flopped two pillows down on it, and sat at the keyboard.

The world felt still.

Only Buena’s soft crunching of her bone punctuated the stillness of the night.

I’d buy a desk chair in Mexico.

Buena stood by the door, needing to go outside.

I looked through the sheer curtain at the door and could see soft grey light poking through.

Opening the door, I tied her to her outside lead and went back inside. Across the room, I pulled back the curtain.

Past the lights of U.S. Customs, the grey blue blanket of cloud stretched toward the east and lit up in oranges and reds at the edge. The deep red looked like blood.

Red sky at night, sailor’s delight; red sky in the morning, sailor take warning.

Election day was two days away. All of America sat poised as to how it would play out.

I watched the sky as the morning slowly stretched toward me, lighting the underbellies of grey-blue clouds with tickles of pink.

On the other side of the RV, the three semis from last night were still parked. One was a cattle trailer, followed by a flatbed of hay (for the cows?), and the third across the street carried vented boxes, which when I saw it yesterday I thought was for chickens. I don’t know why I thought it was used to carry chickens, but that was what popped into my head.