The Hymns We Used to Sing
We were civilized as we walked.
The food we’d … Read more
April 2022
Night Light
Constructed cream
embedded with cutlery
missing plates,
indigo Lincoln
rumbling toward me,
landline phone
with a large black
switch, a beret
& teeth to pitch
me awake
into a curtained … Read more
The Polish Border
Your baby
looks like our baby bundled into her pink snowsuit.
Yours is zipped into a snowsuit with flowers.
You hold her up to the Red Cross worker.
The international … Read more
The Hunger Of War
They’re piling up
or splayed out
on streets
body after body
civilians
unarmed
or ill-advisedly
armed
in haste
and heroism
their meat is needed
to feed the hunger.… Read more
This little slab of horror
This terrible reason to pray
I keep stuffing my prayers
back through the glass
but the war won’t go away.
About the Poem
On a Saturday in April 2022, I … Read more
Another raid at the mosque
police have entered morning prayers
another raid at the mosque
Palestinians stockpiled stones
set barriers
19 people injured three to the hospital beaten
by rubber-coated bullets
nine arrested smashed windows… Read more
As Tanks Press Toward Kyiv
(and you gather with family in a restaurant in Philly)
You want to know why
it persists, this curse of the human,
pyromania at the heart’s core,
the dream and … Read more
An OK State Motto
A woman wipes her eyes –
allergic to the taste of metallic
blood pooling on the tongue from biting
so hard to prevent comments that
leave her feeling less … Read more
On Escaping Mariupol
No, they say, it’s not true—
we haven’t been heroes.
The soldiers who stood
our ground have been
shot, their backs to the sea.
Our mission was this: to … Read more