THE NATURAL STATE OF THINGS

by Elaine Dowd

Two grandmas coo as they sip Kool-Aid
Like new suede shoes on broken blue Blessed rivers dance with barbwire and borders While all that jazz drowns in cluster bombs of silk

What happened to that little girl with the gap tooth smile? Swallowed by bamboo citadels and Damascus dust Years go by, two batons, one pointed mind
The kids don’t know if you really want to live

Sanitized children with swollen bellies Antiseptic policy and workers essential Colonized minds and Covid gasps An orange sky cries out for sustenance

All the meanwhile, Peace drums up a master plan while he sips hot cheeto fumes And all that is left is

so

much

space

Ode to the Vats
digital photograph
Lisa Jacqueline Graves