June 1942
Tonight
I swallow the waning
moon where it unspools
in my belly like a
white ribbon
lettered with Lidice’s fate.
Every bended knee
broken
every tongue extracted every
outstretched hand severed
at the wrist.
Plundered cemeteries and burned-
out buildings tilled under.
Mothers
and children sent into shadow
and all the men opened like flowers.
