Ignoring the War
At the door of my body,
at the boundary, where
the meal must enter
at the proper
pace and volume,
where my face
must stay still,
(after the nondescript prayer)
at the table in the appropriate chair,
the thoughts I am thinking,
the words I am
thinking, go missing.
Everyone talks.
I suppose I talk also.
Afterwards (after words)
I’ll stand dark outside,
where no one will
notice, where no one
else looks up at lasting
contrails, and thinks
oh my god where
are we going?
Headline
Tourists flock to Death Valley amid searing heat wave
The sign stays STOP and the man
enters the desert regardless
behind him are others
two boys in shorts and matching caps
paused to read as their dad walks on looking
the other way
He strides ahead his actions
telling them don’t be afraid
maybe
he’s the kind of dad who says
go big or go home don’t be a pussy
If they live they can say they were
there on that day
the day that burned the day that singed
that parched the day that killed
people but not them
Then they can say it was unbelievable
it was so fucking hot
it was like a sunburn in the throat
and lungs
It was a literal Hell
and I went there anyway
I went there with my dad
National Anthems
I sat in a rooftop restaurant
ashamed of breakfast.
The eggs. The special bread. O
father. O dollar. O tree,
indoors without a bird.
Tree tree tree bird bird bird——
O Texas, Eileen Myles wants to cry,
wants to shoot your map to bits.
O Mama, elect her.
Elect to keep her/me——I’m sorry
what were you saying? Oh.
He’s saying he’s crushed by the election.
He’s saying he stayed in bed three days
but now he’s laughing.
O! He’ll move to Europe
or Japan. O passport.
O escape with body still intact. Oh but
it’s everywhere.
Yeah but in other countries you just
don’t care as much.
He laughs. O reveal yourself.
O rule on, cold lord,
until you are covered
with moss.
With 20th-century Pell Grant and Work-Study assistance, Kris Becker studied creative writing at Willamette University and Syracuse University. Her poems and translations have appeared in Collateral, Rogue Agent, Terrain.org, CALYX, Willow Springs, Two Lines, and elsewhere. For truthtelling-as-takedown (her favorite kind of revenge story), she recommends Enter the Body by Joy McCullough, in which Shakespeare’s dead girls have their say.
