posting!

anger

because they’ve fenced off the ocean and now demand tribute.
this morning she vowed to hurl rocks at the uniformed ones.
this morning, garbage and neighbors exploded on the sidewalk.
this morning, black smoke, the neighbor’s maimed dog.
she recalled her father’s red imprint on her cheek.
because when she cooked rice, never enough water.
the church where she sought penance, a hole in the sky.

***

bury the dead

they covered the shoreline, and the shoreline receded.
by midday, their bodies, the sand desiccated.
because they were so many,
we could not bury them all.
we constructed makeshift crosses,
salt mounds. we sought benediction,
cleared a path, and never returned.