how are you / doing, there / in spaceship foil / on the hard floor / of a concrete moon / I hear in your cries / the sound of history / the accent / that violins us to the adagio / I see in your face / my own brown eyes / once looking / into mommom’s peach cakes / close enough / for scolding / I’d rather poppy’s belt / than no poppy at all / and what was your sin / but running here / to us / with fathers, too, / who always tried / to bring food / despite bills higher than kitchen cabinets / that stored the family / ceramics / I mourn / I don’t have the language / to mother you / while you wait for the one / who carried you / into what she thought would be greener / not grayer / grasses / there are no blades / of grass / in patrolling voices / and I wish the steel / doesn’t copper / your heart with more / blood / you’ve already suffered / your mother’s hand / cometted from your fingers / please know / you do not threaten me / child who has laughed / from the same diaphragm / if this is an orchestra / may your voice piano silent / the people who hurt you / when you cry from the same / tear ducts, I hope you / blackhole this moon / a vacuum / a crater / of love / something resembling home / that rocks you to the stillness / the green-yellow fields of the heartland / the blue-green of the coast / the brick of a building / with space to move / open windows / a fairy-cloud blanket and pillow / your own parents / kiss you / before you orbit / in dreams
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The sound of children crying for their parents at the border [CNN]
Kids in cages and other scenes from Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’ border [Vanity Fair]
How the stress of family separation may permanently damage migrant children [Rolling Stone]
Crystal Stone is a first-year MFA student at Iowa State University. Her worked has appeared in various international journals and she gave a TEDx talk called “The Transformative Power of Poetry” in April.
Image by Banksy.
