What is an emergency if not
the same earth falling away
each time
no home is bullet proof
no child forgets
you must know this is not a time
for myth or mercy
but flood
not everything can heal itself
Freud says the first game children play
is
fort/da
here/gone
I learn fort means here
you can visit Fort Worth
JFK gave his last speech there
the same day he died
you can visit his memorial there
tripadvisor ranks it #16 of 132 things to do in Fort Worth
what will there be for Atatiana?
imagine her home becoming a Jefferson Memorial
there are many types of forts
a castle
a house
a blanket
what kind of fort is so porous it cannot hold a woman and child
Fort Worth prints sixty percent of the country’s paper money
I think they are trying to tell us something about worth
but all I see is a wound spreading
sometimes fort means gone
——
Erin Mizrahi is a New York-based poet and educator. She is the host of Cobra Milk, a monthly reading series that features emerging and established writers. She teaches English at Hunter College and is currently writing about the desert.
