Portside

Hoax

By Donna Pucciani

There’s a child in a cage

who knows just one word:

mama she screams

ah here’s a shot

to calm her no

we cannot have that

noise and misbehavior

keep them quiet so

they will disappear

under a searing sun

and a noncommittal moon

and they are brown

and in rags and

her mama

ran with her

under one arm

days and nights

in a desert full of animals

and stars cradled

in her mother’s embrace

sturdy as the red rocks

brave as cacti

that thrive without water

please please refugees

they smell of sweat

and thirst they have

forgotten the hunger

whose reedy voice

echoes under the ribs

the child is shoved in this line

the woman in another

but you imagine this

all propaganda

some people are not

people some are not even

people they are not like us

they are not

fake news

Donna Pucciani, a Chicago-based writer, has published poetry worldwide in Shi Chao Poetry, Poetry Salzburg, ParisLitUp, Acumen, Voice and Verse, Journal of Italian Translation, and many other journals. Her seventh and most recent book of poems is Edges.