“I’m quite tired of beating myself up to write.  I think I’ll start letting the words slip out like a tired child. “Can I have a piece of pie” he asks, and then he’s asleep back on the cusp of the moon.”                                                             ~ Jim Harrison from Songs of Unreason

 

My mum gave me a bag of sweets
I still have them with me
I look up to see to see two other kids
-two plus me make three
I offer them hard-boiled sweets
they said, ‘No, thank you-
too much like reality’
I want to eat a Snicker bar
but I’ll wait for mum so we can
both snicker through it
I offer them Mars bars
‘Thank you’, they say,
‘at least space travel’s allowed in here’
Too soon, we’re all back to earth
back in our cage
We sigh…..saying nothing
I miss my mum and
I know they miss their parents too
I’ve still got Love Hearts at the bottom
of my bag
I’ll save them for mum
then we’ll suck on them…together
‘Mum…where are you?’

 

©Vivian Zems

Day 19 of 28 days of Unreason

Nearly 2,000 children have been separated from their parents at the border between mid-April and the end of May.

The administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy entails criminally charging those entering the US illegally, including asylum seekers.  Read More