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poetry War News

San Francisco poet Beau Beausoleil writes a poem each day during the current war in Gaza.

War News



By Beau Beausoleil





I sit at Blue Heron Lake

staring out at the

rippling changing water



Mostly the tourists are gone

and the empty rowboats turn

in half circles as they feel for

the wind over the water



I watch the nearby trees

pull on the roots that have

tied them to their captivity



Loose groups of children

walk by and parts of their

free wandering imagination

stay with me



Later sitting there

I shuddered as the wind

became cold 

and although I couldn't

clearly see past my words 



 i felt the water turn a grayish

cacophony of red

Beau Beausoleil is a poet and activist based in San Francisco, California. His two most recent chapbooks are, The Killing of George Floyd (Intermittent Press 2023) and Poems for Ukraine (Barley Books (UK) 2023). His poem, War News, is from a series of poems written each day during the genocidal war in Gaza. Ninety of these poems have been collected in a free online ebook published by AGITATE! Journal.

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