ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
J. David is from Cleveland, Ohio and serves as poetry editor for Flypaper Magazine.
Also by J. David:
Track One, Track Two
Two Poems
The Asexual Boy Buys Roses for the Entire Strip Club
Poets Resist
Edited by Cody Stetzel
September 21, 2018
Edited by Cody Stetzel
September 21, 2018
The poem I write in shame
My family returns to my motherland without me.
Loved ones ask about me in a language that I have forgotten
While Russian troops march tanks across a border
And fly planes over occupied Crimea.
Putin bombs Luhansk and files troops into the rubble
Our evening news says nothing
Our president shakes his hand.
I imagine in this moment Mama Mila folding clothes
During the insurgency of Cardboard-Knights-In-Service-Of-An-Evil-Man.
She asks my mother where my bones are warming, why have I not come?
The answer is always I have work. I have school. I have no time.
And there is never time in war.
There is only shame in the leaving and not returning.
There is only shame that this is the world we are to undress in.
I am a Ukrainian immigrant and recently had the opportunity to return home for the first time since I was a child, but I chose not to out of fear of returning to an area near occupied territory. This poem is me reckoning with my fear as well as disappointment.
Poets Resist is published by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
