Robert Wrigley: Taking Care

Tornillo, Texas

It must be assumed that the caretakers—

if that’s what they are called and not guards—

are kind.  If not parents then parental

in appropriately incarcerative ways.

As for the toddlers and pre-toddlers:

how many days, weeks, or months must pass

before they understand no mother, no father,

will hold them soon, or possibly ever?

Does the crying of one set off

the crying of others?  Does it stop

eventually? for good?

And the caretakers: what about them,

come home late at night.

And maybe before entering the house

their own children sleep in,

they sit on a plastic chair or a step,

on a porch or a patio,

on a driveway, a parched yard.

Perhaps they smoke a cigarette.

Who wouldn’t?  Just sitting there,

after all, listening to the cries

of coyotes, listening.

On one side of the river,

on the other, uncertain

what country they are in.

Copyright 2019 Robert Wrigley

Robert Wrigley’s many books include Box (2017, Penguin). He teaches at the University of Idaho.