near Srebrenica, 1998

                                   It took dominion everywhere.
                                              Stevens, “Anecdote of the Jar”

A shoe stands
at the forest edge,

tongue depressed
with spectacles

and one gray sock.
It’s quiet now:

no more cries
and volleys.

A breeze ripples
the maple leaves,

cicadas chirr,
the sky’s bright blue—

all poised in place
around the shoe.

 

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