☀ Today's Poem: "The Murmuring Grief of the Americas" Daniel Borzutsky

there are children crossing the river     some float on cardboard and some
hold on to each other and some sing we are alive     there are neon lights
above the river     the camera crews stand on the banks and film the river
in the right light     they film the floating children in the right light they
film the sky turning purple and pink as fluffy pollen dissolves in the
warm air     a tree with edible fruit is in the background     droopy white
flowers with long petals hang down and by the tree a brother and sister
exhausted

don't die     the director says to the children     if you die we won't be able
to make this film and if we don't make this film there will be no evidence
that once you were alive and if there is no evidence that once you were
alive     then no one will know that we loved you

the children step out of the river and walk to a bridge where there is a
sign that says Welcome to the Promised Land     but the sign is not meant
for the children     it is meant for the patriots who are chasing the children
the patriots do not enter the scene to be documented     they are there
to hunt the children     they try to trap the children on the bridge but
they do not arrive in time     they meet the children on the other side of
the bridge     where the camera records one of them saying welcome to
the promised land you little warthogs and there is gun shot     and the
children run off in different directions     the camera doesn't know whom
to follow     one child is shot in the leg and the camera zooms in on his
blood as the patriots drag him away

the camera catches up with the children later that night when they set up
camp on a spinach farm     the director takes great pleasure in filming
the older children as they care for the young ones     they feed them and
bathe them and sing songs and play games like Simon Says and Simon
tells the children to stop speaking     he tells the children to stop breathing
to stop wanting     to stop thinking     to stop being themselves     he tells
the children to become someone else     to become something else     and
the children say how do we do that     and Simon says you listen to the
earth     at the right time it will tell you what to do     but he knows the
earth is a liar

After Simon puts the children to bed the camera lingers on his face as he
weeps     and he tells himself     stop speaking     and he tells himself     stop
breathing     and he tells himself     stop eating     and he looks into the
camera and says the pain in my mouth won't stop     this pain in my eyes
won't stop     my tongue is burning my lips are burning my soul needs
to rest he says     your soul?     stop breathing     he tells himself     I need
to die again he says     because when I die again I will become the river
that runs between myself and myself     I will become the mountains that
separate myself from myself and you will deposit new meaning into my
body as I become the story you've been waiting for

But in the story you've been waiting for I will not be an I     and you will
not be a you     and for several minutes water will run toward me and it
will be the river of death and I will say no no it is not the river of death
it cannot be the river of death     but by the time I get the words out of my
mouth the river of death will have emptied itself out and the past will not
be the past and I won't know what it means to be dead