Checkpoint Id On My Birthday Poem by Francisco R. Albano

Attention! Know all by these presents:

This afternoon the regional consular office
Gave me a passport good for five years,
A necessary document I have no use for
At this time. But if today someone gives me
A free ticket to Afghanistan, I’d pack up pronto.
I now have, besides, a social security number,
An internal revenue ID, a Church ID, a school ID,
A voter’s ID, a bank book, college diploma,
A birth certificate and a baptismal certificate.
Outside the State there is no salvation?
I have papers authentic; ergo, I exist!

Hitler, the dictators, the generals are pleased.
Now to work for that halo!

(March 29,2008)