Poetry

Stephen Melkisethian photo

By

Melissa Silva

That Week

Will those who follow us know

that in the week when

children were kept in cages,

that in the week when we

wondered if any

of the separated sons

and daughters would

be with their parents again,

that in the week when

the government put

babies and toddlers in

the Casa El Presidente

Tender Age Shelter –

will they know we also

listened to poetry?

And heard a soprano sing,

“Where are we going?”

“Where are we going?”

The Holy Ghost Was in That Water

The river crowned –

the levees

the homes

the bodies

The Holy Ghost was in that water

The water drowned –

a person

a place

the ninth ward

The people pleaded –

“Help us, Help us”

went to burials

died some more

The churchgoers –

sang gospels

stomped their feet

talked of Simon on the rooftops

A black woman –

walked into church

dressed in her best

wearing a grand gold hat on her crown

The Holy Ghost was in that water

Melissa Silva

Melissa Silva is a Poet and a Nurse. She has studied Fiction Writing, and Storytelling and Performance. She was a member of the performing collective Storytellers in Concert. Her poems have appeared in Bonsai, Oddball Magazine, and Stone’s Throw. She does promotion for Cervená Barva Press, Somerville, MA. She lives in Arlington, MA.