“Time(s)” by Amanda Yskamp (original) (raw)

TIME(S)

The news is there’s a shortage of coffins,

the telegram has been decoded,

and the grandmother deported despite dementia.

The news is the toucan is heading up the mountain,

they’re playing volleyball at the nuclear test site

(the satellite shows), they’re bartering tampons in jail,

they’re smoking to feel free, they’re letting her speak,

they’re not letting her speak, they’re not letting her

show her face. The news is truth-telling

leads to reconciliation, there’s a shivering,

what they did is unspeakable, but some speak

of it, some think coming home is worth the risk,

the rendezvous is worth risking what the mountains

are silent about, some escape, some on foot,

some are rousted from the riverbanks

minutes before the flood, playing violins filled with water.

—_Poets Respond_ April 30, 2017

__________

Amanda Yskamp: “If you were to read the newspaper with the aim of arriving at some kind of holistic world vision, of understanding these times from one day’s news, with an accumulation of details, this would be (is) that poem. This is a kind of collage that shows the temperature and the tenor of our time(s) by sampling from the (NY) Times.” (website)