(with deepest apologies to WH Auden)

Stop all the boats, scream it from a megaphone,
Prevent

Under the tip of my finger nail
Lies grit and grime and dust.
DNA and muck
Combine to tell a

In the late morning heat
the mountains fold into haze
a tree-barren patchwork
from fire

A village deserted for so long
after such a horror:
Battalion Atlacatl, armed & trained

I glimpse a graphite sea
Smudging a sky
Laden with menace.

I have sought escape
From my