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My cousin
had a nightmare
that we kept
building seawalls
higher and
higher
all around
our island
up to
the sky
until suddenly
we were
at the bottom
of a wishing well
looking
up
at the world.
Copyright © 2022 by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 31, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.
Today I am setting aside the endless to-do lists,
the coffee filters that need picking up, the refrigerator
that has stopped working, the press releases about wave flooding
inundations on Arno, Namu, Ailinlaplap, and the simultaneous drought.
How can I feel lonely when I am submerged
in catastrophe? In the constant reminder that someday
When my daughter whines I tell her to say what you want in a nice voice.