215
a minivan in Baghdad
painted Ramadan streets
manslaughter red and
mothers wait for their children
wait for their children
mothers wait.
20
handsome men in a bakery
in Bangladesh
silence tongues
unable to fasten themselves
around Koran Arabic
because their
parents sat them on their laps
lulling them to sleep
in Italian
in Japanese
in English
instead.
42
men detonated
like grenades in an Istanbul airport
blasting through
bone and skin of
young boys and girls
we all were at
some point.
1
a teenage boy cuts
sleeping girl, dreaming
in Gaza
both too young for blame
and a Mourner’s Kadish
is prayed by a mother
who could
have been mine.
49
an American as
American as apple pie
with AR-15 bullets
remixes Latin beats
and Orlando gay club thumpa
thumpa thump
with screaming boys in blood smudged make-up
and crying girls who used to watch the
L-Word in secret so their parents
wouldn’t know things about
them.
25
a godless man
shouts Allahu Akbar!
in a Kuwaiti mosque
before turning the hall
into a burial site where
prayers used to
be mumbled over by
children
learning
how to do it like their fathers.
129
Bombs
are the last thing
heard
in soccer stadium rafters
by Parisian school boys and
mothers wait for their children
wait for their children
mothers wait.