LISTEN

by Gloria Mindock

The soldiers fire into the people,

grabbing women and young girls,

shoving bottles where no bottles should be.

The soldiers beat them until lips are cracked,

rape them again.

There is no boundary not broken.

The stories travel from country to country.

The world says, “There is no proof.”

So many died without a burial

or casket.

So many died in pits, unaccounted for.

Can’t you hear their weeping

around 2:00AM?

How can you sleep?

How can you when the world

holds such a stench, holds so many bones?

* * * * *

"Listen" is from Gloria Mindock's poetry collection Whiteness of Bone (Glass Lyre Press, 2016).

Gloria Mindock is the author of five books of poetry, most recently, I wish Francisco Franco Would Love Me (Nixes Mate books, 2018). She is the founding editor of Červená Barva Press and one of the USA editors for Levure Litteraire (France). Widely published in the USA and abroad, her poetry has been translated and published into Romanian, Croatian, Serbian, Montenegrin, Spanish, Estonian, Albanian, and French. Gloria has been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Gargoyle, Web Del Sol, Poet Lore, Constellations: A Journal of Poetry and Fiction, Muddy River Poetry Review, Unlikely Stories and Nixes Mate Review. She was the Poet Laureate in Somerville, MA in 2017 and 2018.