Charisma is an effigy that burns
bright behind bars,
fueled by shame.
Menstrual blood leaks
rationed through state-issued
pads. Raze them down,
burn with truth.
Peace costs everything.
If human shields hold hands,
sleepwalk through razor wire,
fjord an insomniac river
beyond border scars,
if a wall falls in a desert unseen
by helicopter beams,
is the zone demilitarized?
Revolution starts within.
The moon wanes; starlight emerges;
the stream of love
inside collective hearts
feels the lunar pulse
of a planet on fire.
Sarah Degner Riveros was born in Chicago; she studied at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Universitat de Barcelona, and Columbia University in New York where she earned a doctorate in Spanish literature. She teaches at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota where she is currently working on an MFA in poetry and creative nonfiction. She is a single mother of five children.