from the Temple of the Yellow Rectangle and Chain-Link Fence

TODAY'S NEWS FROM THE MESSENGER--

NEWS SOURCE FROM

THE TEMPLE OF THE YELLOW RECTANGLE AND CHAIN-LINK FENCE

            21 January 2020

Extra light shown from within this morning

at The Temple of The Yellow Rectangle and Chain-link Fence

as City workers had cleared snow from its parking area, piling it inside

Temple perimeters creating a six-foot snow-bank attracting

not only morning light but enabling the witnessing community

to see over the chain-link fence and into the loading area

where three buses had arrived to load 87 asylum seekers

on to Swift Air for deportation from the United States of America.

Seven women and eighty men, bound by hands, waist and legs,

in chains, board the Swift Air jet carefully escorted by men

wearing yellow vests, employees of ICE. The 87 number

is larger than the usual number, presumably due to the buses'

inability last week to get over mountain passes they must cross

after leaving the Tacoma Detention Center. One witness

who made the three-hour drive from Walla Walla

will climb the snow bank, waving the Pride Flag

from Snow Bank Peak, newly named, during the process

of transferring and deportation of the men and women.

One woman following the man up the snow bank, turns and asks,

Where do they go from here? To another detention center in Texas?

Keep asking questions. Gather your fragments.

Maybe your task will be to assemble questions.

I arrived early to measure Temple's rectangular perimeters,

counting off 17 paces twice, for length,

and seven-and-a-half paces for width. Inside the stripe

of yellow paint, one length, and one width, connects

to one length and one width of chain-link fence,

creating not only a viewing area, but a Free Speech Zone.

Inside one is safe. Other rules apply outside.

Guides for outside is up to the individual. Know the rules.

Seventeen paces by seven-and-a-half. A free space.

Three words, No Está Solo, in black paint on a shower curtain.

D's count is careful. She relies on binoculars.

Double-checks what she finds with our photographer, M.

Another woman keeps count on the yellow notebook pad.

After the flight D makes two calls: One to La Resistencia,

the other to Center for Human Rights at the University.

Today one question remains. A woman's boarding is questioned.

Was she held back? Or not? An illness perhaps.

But where is she? If D doesn't know, nobody knows.

Jim Bodeen

21 January 2020