Tag: found poetry

Split Borders Parents are property, Children an immediate danger. Mean, this humanitarian crisis. The democratic republic Separating parents from children— Families fractured by policy. Unconstitutional, Cruel, Unlawful, A violation Of due process and Equal protection. Vexing. The administration appeared Unprepared for the fallout “The child has rights,” a spokesman conceded. “This is a complex situation.” Amid the chaos, The president continued to rail against Those fleeing danger and persecution, Asylum claims, Our land, Judges, Laws. An unmistakable message: “You can’t come in. “Don’t come at all.” Respond, lawmakers. Shift focus, Keep families together, Lean into that vote, Cross that bridge. Take action.

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Poem found in “Federal Judge in California Halts Splitting of Migrant Families at Border,” The New York Times, June 26, 2018.

Unprecedented A choreographed Freewheeling wager. Flattery, Cajolery, And a slickly produced video. A bulletproof confrontation. Diplomatic language, Recycled statements, Verifiable missiles. Sleep well tonight! A showdown with diplomacy: Three hours of meetings Plus a lunch of prawns and crispy pork. Provocative vague details, A thumping soundtrack Of benevolent peacemakers: An inspirational view. Aides fidgeted. Reality TV? Science fiction? A buddy movie. At ease with each other, They walked on a balcony, Smiled occasionally, Heaped praise. Human-rights abuses? Hardly a priority. It is a rough situation over there. It’s rough in a lot of places.

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Poem found in “The Trump-Kim Summit Was Unprecedented, but the Statement Was Vague,” The New York Times, June 12, 2018

War Crimes Honored The camp, Holding 32,000 Union soldiers— The fifth largest city in the Confederacy— Was dire. The prisoners, Never issued clothing, Wore their uniforms until the pieces fell off, Lived in holes they dug in the ground. One reportedly used a pocket knife To amputate his own gangrenous feet. The death toll reached 13,000. The man who presided over their deaths, Captain Henry Wirz, Was put on trial for war crimes. Stories began flooding the Northern newspapers: Photographs of survivors starved into living skeletons, Like nothing the world had seen before, And would not see again Until the end of World War II. Wirz was found guilty of Cruelty, Shooting, Beating, Turning dogs loose on prisoners, Such nameless blasphemy and ribald jest, As to exhibit him rather as a demon than a man. So why erect a monument to a demon? To recast him as a martyr. To rescue his name from the stigma attached to it By embittered prejudice.

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Poem found in “Weekend Read: Executed for committing war crimes—then honored with a Confederate monument,” Southern Poverty Law Center, June 8, 2018