Hoax
Hoax
By Donna Pucciani
There’s a child in a cage
who knows just one word:
mama she screams
ah here’s a shot
to calm her no
we cannot have that
noise and misbehavior
keep them quiet so
they will disappear
under a searing sun
and a noncommittal moon
and they are brown
and in rags and
her mama
ran with her
under one arm
days and nights
in a desert full of animals
and stars cradled
in her mother’s embrace
sturdy as the red rocks
brave as cacti
that thrive without water
please please refugees
they smell of sweat
and thirst they have
forgotten the hunger
whose reedy voice
echoes under the ribs
the child is shoved in this line
the woman in another
but you imagine this
all propaganda
some people are not
people some are not even
people they are not like us
they are not
fake news
Donna Pucciani, a Chicago-based writer, has published poetry worldwide in Shi Chao Poetry, Poetry Salzburg, ParisLitUp, Acumen, Voice and Verse, Journal of Italian Translation, and many other journals. Her seventh and most recent book of poems is Edges.