Remember
Napalm girl running down the road. Little Alan, lying face down on the Turkish coast. Children we failed. Children we fail. Reminders of a world we broke a word we broke the fault lines stretching between us like swollen veins. Remember? The one image that remains in the afterlife of the event. From theatres of war. From streets of resistance. From catastrophe. Like a flag proclaiming our courage. Like a banner denouncing our failure. Remember? In an orange jacket, Rachel facing a moving bulldozer In a grey hoodie, Rhiya holding back a police van, windshield wipers moving from side to side refusing the monsoon rain. This time the vehicle stopped. Remember? I do with courage what I do with grief. Swipe left. Keep scrolling. Shush the voices in my ears. How much of both do I need to walk up to the image in the mirror? Remember?
#Poetry
This is a ways down the road from memory - "I do with courage what I do with grief. /
Swipe left. Keep scrolling." Leave those children faded in the rear-view mirror. Honesty like this is so hard for poetry to bear, but it's our job to honestly apprize the burden.
"In an orange jacket,
Rachel facing
a moving bulldozer"
I remember this very well on a personal level. My brother was right there with her and was also partially buried in rubble but survived and was dug out by small boys, then he accompanied Rachel's body back to the US. I've tried to write about it a couple times but can't seem to get anything I'm happy with, maybe because I only heard it all secondhand while I was safely tucked up in an American college. Anyway, you wrote powerful poem. thanks