Goes
Goes the jet laying down its shadow, grazing
rapid ground. Goes the clone undoing species. Goes
the email’s whoosh alone to others. Goes the boy abused to field. Goes
his kite skyward-torn, agape. Goes the clouded mind. Go the soldiers
to Iraq. Go the drones dispatched far before them. Go the blown-out
walls in Raqqa. Go bags of flour among rubble. Go the refugees
broken to Jordan. Goes their God to whom they pray. Goes
ISIL deeper. Goes the orphaned child, othered over
the border. Goes the homeless girl back under the boat’s hull
on the LA river. Go the gangs, the Bloods, Crips. Goes the meth,
smack, from Compton to Tallahassee. Goes the OxyC from big Pharm
to door. Go the migrants toward that tear-gassed border. Go
their kids, toddlers too toward their cots in detention centers. Going
with space blankets and without parents. Going strange and long.
Originally appeared: The Los Angeles Review, 2023.
