When the Orders Came

<sup>"[We are] calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States."

             —Trump’s administrative team, December 7, 2015</sup>

they shipped us to the sanctuary camps

& we forgot our other countries.

like good schoolchildren we sung

the anthem loud, so loud

until we could hear nothing else.

not the birds delighting

over their young, or the dogs’ snarl

at our feet, or him on the news

hourly, growling. this is the cost

of looking the other way

when they come for us:

I build safety inside you

& wake in cuffs.

I’m all mouth. every morning

I whisper my country my country my country

& my hands stay empty.

what is land but land? a camp

but a camp? sanctuary

but another grave? I am an architect.

I permission everything

into something new.

I build & build

& someone takes it away.