(Un)Documents by Jesus I. Valles

“somewhere in an archive, i am burning soft and young

i am pages of testimonies, receipts, report cards

case numbers making up the limbs i lack on the page

and somewhere else my brothers, their papers

deportation proceedings, testimonies, receipts, criminal

records scratched and bound and gone and

case numbers making up the limbs they lost leaving

and why”

Comprised of poems, journal entries, and immigration paperwork, (Un)Documents is a struggle to tell and an attempt to figure out what’s worth telling. It is an attempt to ask questions about how we talk about citizenship, documentation, its absence, and what, if anything, comes from telling. Mostly, it’s a story about me and my brothers and some papers.