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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