Heave Sonnet #241117
Copyright © 2026 by Daniel Borzutzky. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 24, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets.
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Painblank
Pain—has an Element of Blank—
—Emily Dickinson
there is a herald a messenger a teacher’s aide
making proclamations
about the ins and outs of the pupils’ bodies, the holes
the wounds, let’s quantify
2024
Written After a Massacre in the Year 2018
There is no country to claim you when you die inside the word
There is no language to claim you when die inside the cage
The exiled cage breathes death at us
The cage of exile heaves private air at us
Look
Don’t speak now
Just look
2020
Managed Diversity
Through predictive analytics I understood the inevitability of the caged-up babies They keep coffins at the border for when the refugees get too far from home How many thousands of bodies can we fit in a tent or a swimming pool We can live without the unknown in front of us if we keep enough babies in cages The cardboard box sleeps one kid comfortably Two is snug efficient recommended in times of austerity Relational values change in relation to market sentiments This is the danger of having too much access to illegal bodies Let’s pretend the illegal bodies are bankers
2018