Vox Populi
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Pablo Otavalo: If you stood any closer you’d be underground
Help me dress these wounds with words
There is just no where to run
What do you mean ten ten thousand
people died I’m sorry that you got caught
in the middle of an open funeral
all year long, a mother searches for the children
a bomb shattered through a wall
It was a sunny day and a war and we
forgave ourselves for looking away
but we want to have a nice day in the middle
of what do you mean ten ten thousand
people died
Help me dress these wounds with words
There is just no where to run
~~~~
Copyright 2024 Pablo Otavalo
Pablo Otavalo is from Cuenca, Ecuador, and now lives and writes in Illinois. A recipient of the 2013 and 2014 Illinois Emerging Writers Competition prize, his work has appeared in Poetry Magazine, RHINO Poetry and other publications. He says, “We must find what we revere in each other.”
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Very moving title, very moving indeed. Thank you, Pablo.
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This is so true. What a powerful reminder not to look away.
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Shame! We no longer should forgive ourselves for looking away. Thank for such a powerful piece.
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“I’m sorry that you got caught
in the middle of an open funeral
all year long,”
it’s phrases like this that make me want to exclaim: THIS is why we need poets: in 16 words he described what the world is going through today!
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Exactly why we need poets. Thank you, Laure-Anne.
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So true. I’m reminded of William Stafford’s line in his poem Thinking of Berky, where he writes: justice will take us millions of intricate moves. I would add the witness of poetry to those moves, as a second necessity.
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Thanks, Jim.
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