Status

We don't know anybody's status.
Where in the world are they from? 

Did they come through the front door,

With all the necessary paperwork in order?

 

Are they black or yellow or red or 

Just not white like our founding fathers?

How can you question who once made us great

With ambition, courage, sacrifice, and hard work?

 

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,*

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” 

 

We accepted them and we became

The greatest country in all the world.

But the times they have certainly changed 

And now we want to make America great again.

 

So just let them return home

And curse the fate they were born with.

We don’t need them to fulfill their hopes

While making this country better than ever.

 

We don’t want people who will work hard

And reinvigorate old crumbling neighborhoods.

Why do we need more people to pick our crops,

Prepare our foods and serve and clean up after us?

 

What is good about having dreamers study hard

And advance science, technology, and businesses?

Why do we need low unemployment and low inflation

Just like in the good old days we want to bring right back?

 

Our country can solve all its problems

By just closing all our doors to everybody.

Oh, we can do it all alone without any foreigners,

But what is everyone’s status and how did they get here?

 

 

*Quote on the Statue of Liberty, from the Emma Lazarus poem, “The New Colossus”

 

 

Copyright 2025, Charles A. Bruns

Fatherlands: Identities of a Cuban American

My debut book, Fatherlands: Identities of a Cuban American, is now available in print and digital formats! This memoir -- the most challenging writing project I've undertaken since first learning the English language -- is the book I was meant to write. It includes a few excerpts from my 1400 Characters blog and Facebook posts over the years. Comprised of 21 photos and 57,470 words spread over 200 pages, many English-language readers around the world will find this "memoir with a twist" interesting and informative, and perhaps more.

For more information about my book, including how to obtain a paperback copy or digital download, go to www.charleslopezbruns.com.

Moving To The "Country"

Clockwise from top left: Charley's first communion portrait; wearing his Little League uniform; in front of former childhood home. 

a poem by Marshall S. Harth

Moving to Bloomfield, to the "Country"
Was like entering another country
Everything was not the same
I even had to change my name!
Why was that, because of shame?
Who's responsible, who to blame?
I missed my friends, my neighborhood
I had to lie, do what I could
Not my choice, only what I should
But, being me, I held my own
I recognized how I had grown
New vistas opened up to me
I saw, eventually, who I could be,
And that's the tale of my "Identity"!

Copyright Marshall S. Harth 18 October 2019

After reading my autobiographical account about moving from New York City to Bloomfield for a book project, my friend Marshall wrote this poem for me. A Jewish German/Lithuanian-American who was more fortunate than some of his family members who perished during the Holocaust, I am grateful to Marshall for understanding the twisting and turning journey of people's identities through immigration, separation, condemnation, and assimilation.