Vox Populi
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Charles Brice: Wisdom
Wisdom is an albatross
living in Midway Atoll
National Wildlife Refuge.
She’s sixty-six years old,
my age, and is nesting
an egg, a new life,
hope in a shell.
On the front page of the Times
a photo, today, of a man
who carries a bundle
in his left arm—
a child wrapped in a beige
and brown blanket with
fawn spots decorating
its cover. In his right hand
he holds a plastic bag
connected to IV tubing that winds
from the bag and disappears
into the doe-brindled bundle.
Behind him a veiled woman.
Worry folds her hijab
as clearly as the squint
of the man’s eyes
or his lips’ purse.
He grasps the future,
a damaged package
cradled in his arm.
They flee a landscape
strewn with tyranny’s
detritus called Aleppo.
Wisdom is an albatross
sitting on an egg
in Midway Atoll.
Our government there
has pledged
to protect her.
Author’s note: The story about Wisdom the albatross is true. I heard the report on NPR on Monday, 12.12, while driving in the car. The irony that an albatross would be named Wisdom, that it was the oldest bird to lay an egg in history, and that it lived in the Midway Atolls was spectacular. A gift from the god I don’t believe in! I was especially intrigued that our government had pledged to protect her on an island we almost made uninhabitable because of our incessant nuclear testing in the 50s.
Copyright 2017 Charles Brice.
Charles Brice is the author of Flashcuts Out Of Chaos.
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December 11, 2016: A man fleeing to rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria, carrying a child with an IV drip. (Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters)
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Terrific poem. But am I the only one troubled and saddened that the blotted out woman in black is not even mentioned in the photo’s description? Like she doesn’t exist?
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Thanks, Alexis. What about these lines: “Behind him a veiled woman./ Worry folds her hijab…” So, she is mentioned though not really described, right?
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Wow. I have a hard time writing poetry about the political concerns that are seen up close and personal. Maybe I could do it with the bipolar poems, but spread it out to encompass others I know who have different diagnosis. This was powerful.
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