groundbreaking

refugees don’t lose everything
breath stays
and bones don’t break
they still know the truth

the urge to throttle rises upon
hearing of their losses, but
they walk away
even when nothing
nothing, nothing, ever, ever
could be more desirable
and they know it
and will never not know it

they veil the truth
more and more cleverly
to tell it less and
less pitifully

refugees lose their assumptions
leap from the sinking
raft and live
clinging to the rope, to the
high road
and then look down and see all those things
slide through the slats
and sink into the sea
all the things they’ve lost

but it’s not everything
it’s not even close