News Poetry: “Hegemony”

children are dying
from the simplest things
too much cold
not enough water
being a girl riding a bus to school

the sun rises in one place
leaves shadows in another

while the tide keeps its promises
China claims “indisputable sovereignty”
over the sea around it, sweeping
past the shores of the Paracel Islands
the Philippines Malaysia

along the coast red hibiscus
are coming into bloom
as women tell rape stories
of the Nigerian militia

what indisputable wisdom
our bodies hold
from so many colonizations

everywhere voices whisper
what the earth already knows

what do you hold?

 

Photo Credit: shelleylyn, Creative Commons, Flickr 

Colorado poet. She is also the author of a nonfiction book, The Cottonwood Tree: An American Champion, and a contributor to The Bloomsbury Review.