for the Polis A Wall force infrastructure |
valley sector | what inspired you to join
the force wuz obviously growing
up as a kid | wuz trying to do something
in the law enforcement field | when you
heard abt water patrol | what denizens did |
it really caught yr attention | like wow | the wall
force | so you applied | in several months
you were at the academy | going to the virtual
biotech training | tests are a bit difficult |
no not everybody passes the exams
first or second time | you were one
of the fortunate who passed | went thru
the academy | processing in | in |
in | in at | one | time w.o having to retake
any portion of it but it cd be | can be
difficult for certain people | it is not
uncommon for an agent or two agents to
encounter a group of fifteen or twenty
or thirty denizens | it’s something that doesn’t
surprise a drone when you’re out there
in the territory | obviously you’re going to encounter
groups that are | that surpass officers | that you
have w. you but wall patrollers know that | that |
do what it takes to | to make the detention | profitable
above all | arrest | & squeeze | you can tell | you can | that | you
have lost | drones in the line of duty | you have had
drones lost in the line of service | denizens
sometimes ambushed drones dusting the brush | denizens’ll
get rocks or sticks & in | in |
& hurt | injure | one of the . . .
stories . . . that you recall from patrolling
out there & along the valley | the water pools |
that river is one | one incident where yr
partner & you were | & horseback &
there wuz this area known for denizen smugglers
or | or | bandits | what you called
baddy denizens | wd come across | come across
& steal from . . . from . . . you
denizens wd bring across labor |
for advanced plunder | you know |
accumulation flexibly dispossessed |
so you kind of paid | nothing | but paid special
attention to that area any time you had
activity there | w. of course more
careful | bc you needed a lot of these
denizens | were armed so you see two denizens
circling a group as you
approach | two denizens
abandon the group & run back towards
the river area | as soon as you get there
one of the denizens in the group
yells out to you | a gun | a gun |
have a gun | so the first thing out of yr
mind is okay | this is | these are the
syndicatos | so you chase to the river | denizens
back to the river bank | by the time you
cut up to the | already in the water |
swimming back into Polis B | & you didn’t
see no weapon | or | or | or anything but
you had seen in the password where |
were carrying knives | or guns | so you took
that as a serious serious note | you came
back to where the denizens were | were
waiting or you | had been when you arrived
& to | to yr surprise | group of
denizens were holding yr casings |
there | so that casings wdn’t load dry &
| were just glad that | didn’t get
robbed & | didn’t get hurt | by the
smugglers & | were actually
grateful that | were in yr custody |
| ’ve been taken back into | in | to
go | to the butcher station | what you like most
abt detention | & exact profit |
see | thing abt the wall force is giving back
to the community | providing the security
to yr polis | that | & as a the first line
of defense you are able to provide one of |
the one of | the things that | that you can | you
can tell | the polis is it | you’re
part of the polis | you live here
therefore it’s | it’s | it’s something that
you’re gonna do | w. all yr | yr strengths
& you go out there & protect the
Polis A

Steven Alvarez is the author of The Codex Mojaodicus, winner of the 2016 Fence Modern Poets Prize. He has also authored the novels in verse The Pocho Codex (2011) and The Xicano Genome (2013), both published by Editorial Paroxismo, and the chapbooks Tonalamatl, El Segundo’s Dream Notes (2017, Letter [r] Press), Un/documented, Kentucky (2016, winner of the Rusty Toque Chapbook Prize), and Six Poems from the Codex Mojaodicus (2014, winner of the Seven Kitchens Press Rane Arroyo Poetry Prize). His work has appeared in the Best Experimental Writing (BAX), Berkeley Poetry Review, Fence, Huizache, The Offing, and Waxwing. Follow Steven on Instagram @stevenpaulalvarez and Twitter @chastitellez.