A response to poets reading from ‘New Voices: Contemporary Writers Confronting the Holocaust’ (Rattlecast #192)

Palm fronds tango wind, sun-

light & silhouettes shuttering 

like an old movie reel

on backs of eyelids, 

sneaking a cold beer into peak heat

crevice of Philippine afternoon, 

coming to terms with not coming 

to terms with such poetic response 

to holocaust cruelty–my silence held 

in cicada electric hum, escaping slip-

stream of a leaden sleep as one 

more strand unravels grip

& eyelids flicker wide.

First published by Written Tales in their chapbook ‘The Awakening’, June 2023