Musical education turns out not to be
a fundamental right, but the adherents
these half-pints, wrong-side-of-the-tracks
brown kids in this orchestra of light,
wrack heads, wash thoroughly and invent
their own camaraderie of spite.
In Mary Doria Russel's 'the Sparrow'
the Jesuits are an overwhelming force,
but these kids die to illuminate life—
gun violence being such a rampant problem
in the poorer districts of Puerto Rican cities.
