Devon Balwit’s most recent poem to appear here was “The Gathering” (August 2016) 

what words?
By Devon Balwit

you go dance
sit
knees touching
under a café table
buy bread
at a market
work
cheer on
runners
take a plane
walk
the esplanade
inhabit
dailiness

and then
everything
changes

we remain
on this side
while you
maimed
murdered
have crossed over
who
should we hate?
how
respond?
are you writing
about what happened?
someone asks
I try
but what
words
shall I put
in the mouths
of the dead
and what
in the mouths
of the living?