For Liam Conejo Ramos
In the time it takes to read
the photo
We will have taken in the light
that fell from the bare branches
of our backyard maple tree
which stands as a winter
messenger
rooted to everything we
love
Like a small flag of trust
in the hand of a five-year-old
who reaches up for the hand
of his father
Who is now handcuffed as
punishment for that same
trust
both taken in the same breath
That we can no longer share
without visible acts of courage
Beau Beausoleil is a poet and activist based in San Francisco, California. His most recent chapbooks are, Poet as Naturalist (Raven and Wren Press), How Love Sustains Us (Barley Books, U.K.) and War News (daily poems responding to the first three months of the genocidal war in Gaza), which appeared as a free online ebook published by Agitate! Journal. Published in 2025 is a second volume in the War News series, War News II (12/9/23 - 6/3/24), published by fmsbw press in San Francisco.