NEPTUNE BURNS

human[e]

How do you misplace a person? Do you hide them under stone under covers under oaths.
Do you crawl under the dirt and feel their homesickness in your lungs in your heart in your hands? What does it feel like, dear, to know babies will grow aching for a motherland they never held and a mother they never touched?
How do you misplace people? Do you hide them under your words your fears your anger. Do you fit inside cages of cold air and feel the warmth of workers of the sun god touching gray metal wondering where is the gold where is the promised land where is freedom? What does it feel like, patrol officer, to know your children will grow up wondering why you can't sleep at night without crying over seeing their faces reflected in the eyes of every child you yank away?
How do you unlearn to misplace a person? Do you unbury them from molten leafs kiss the dried dirt and pray for bones curse away your xenophobia. Do you huddle under awnings of a bus stop at night and hear the groans and cries of those who wanted to taste america the great the free the unhurt can you feel their blood on your bleached hands? What does it feel like to you, yes you, to know a spray of luminol cast upon your fingers will reveal the faces of children playing hopscotch with stale bread humming the forgotten lullaby of their mother's lost mouth - lost body - how does it feel to know you look at them and see other where you should see same.
How do you love a person? Do you close your eyes to where their hands have been to where their eyes have sought light to where they feel most alive? Do you curl in upon yourself as they cry over nightmares where people take them to a dark room a cold room a lonely room, do you let them cry your neck's crevice into a small pond with unbent memories of a mother giving them the sign of the cross from across an invisible dirt line? What does it feel like, love, to know the same people who will try to treat them were the same people who heard them crying since before they could run the same who heard a mother scream their name and bent to lock a cage the same people who only see half of the border but not the other yet consider themselves angels for fixing what they broke?
How do you misplace a child or a parent? Do you forget that they breathe under dirt and ash? Do you unwrap them from shawls woven with the skilled fingers of a country they love but had to leave force an american flag down their throats dismissing the blood and tears as necessary patriotism scream yell kick while telling them 'english only.' What does it feel like to know you have misplaced your humanity when you've started claiming pride over a land not yours - and claiming superiority over people for not being 'you' enough?

MELTINGSUNS this isn't a happy poem but your comment on my last is what inspired this. you are an actual angel.