JOHN SIBLEY WILLIAMS
|
INTERNMENT — for Vanessa Angélica Villarreal
Draw a line
from the river’s
to where it empties
bloodlessly
into a larger
throat down body, assimilating
salt & gull & all the narratives
of the West. Unspeak
your source language
& salmon, frost, all 1,243 miles it took
to reach open sea.
Whatever you were promised
here has been rescinded; like the light
of mountain
waited at the end of all tunnels.
This country goes weak at the knees at the thought of you,
how you nourish the earth
& give the animals something to drink.
Still the animals are thirsty.
sterile
This new sky still the same
white
sheet you might wrap around a child
separated from her parents.
Santa Fe Literary Review
125