Nightheart

Brown bodies sink, 
are weighted, stick 
to the ocean floor, falling
from overcrowded rafts
into the arms of their heathen’s heaven.

Brown bodies are shot over 
the border like cannon balls.

Climate Change Contest: Gold

I. 
I wish I hadn’t been born in the Age of Extinction, 
I really don’t think my origami heart was made for this,

This is an American prayer. 
This is a mother lifting her child onto her fingertips. 
This is our planes leaving. 
This is a blurry green shot of a soldier. 
This is a history book. 

the earth tells me i am too small
and i grin back all bloody corners and chapped lips.
i have never looke innocent a day in my life, i know, i know.
my smile has always been too hungry to satisfy.

I miss girlhood.
My bones ache with the longing of it,
The way that our legs would swing
Around the metal of the monkey bars
Warmed by the afternoon sun
Shoved uncomfortably under our knees,
Our hands reaching for the mulch.

Maybe it's been a year, 
I know this house like 
The lines of my mothers face now.
My life is contained 
Inside four walls, five rooms 
And three bathrooms, specifically,