How can I eulogize
those I do not know

faces on the news?

The border of my youth
rearranged,
by evil fools,
championed by deranged
citizens
who willfully misremember
their own family history
of migration.

How do I grieve
for children now orphaned,
for children now dead
when neighbors applaud death
as if it’s a good god’s will?

Such events should force us
to our knees in the fiery desert dust,
should remind us of Charleston
and Dayton and Charlottesville
and everywhere else
humanity is murdered,
and Hope is intimidated.

Yes, even Auschwitz.

At the very least
I should give a damn,
try out something called empathy.

It’s not much
but isn’t that the point?