no no

not the nuggets
not the steel shards

no no

not the embeds
not the journalists in tunnels
not the steel shards

no no

not the shards of steel
not the shrapnel intercepts
not in this firmament
not the nuggets
not the steel shards
not the husks of buildings
not the concrete chunks
not the rebar rampikes

no no

not the sleep lost
not rem
not core
not deep

no no

not us
not them
not thee other
not the carnage
not the death
not the censorship

no no

not the news
not the steel shards
not the nuggets

What I’m Reading:

“There’s a rat / scrambling / From light with fleshy trash in its mouth. A / baby strapped / to its mother’s back, cut loose.”

— Joy Harjo / “How to Write a Poem in a Time of War”