Carceral Holocaust | Sarah Degner Riveros

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1 min read

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.