Arok, hiding from the Arabs in the branches
of a tree,
two weeks surviving on leaves,
legs numb, mouth dry.
When the mosquitoes swarmed
and the bodies settled limp as petals under the trees,
he shinnied down, scooping out a mud pit with his hands
sliding into it like a snake,
his whole body covered except his mouth.
Perhaps others were near him,
lying in gloves of mud, sucking bits of air through the swamp holes,
mosquitoes biting their lips,
but he dared not look.
What did he know of the rest of South
Sudan, pockmarked with bombs,
skull trees with their necklaces of bones,
packs of bony Lost Boys
roving like hyenas towards Ethiopia,
tongues, big as toads, swelling in their mouths.
the sky pouring its relentless bombs of
fire. Of course they were
tempted to lie down for a moment,
under the lone tree, with its barely shade,
to rest just a little while before moving on,
the days passing slyly, hallucinations
floating like kites above them
until the blanched bones lay scattered in a
ring around the tree,
tiny ribs, skulls, hip bones -- a tea set overturned,
as the hot winds whistled through them
as they would anything, really,
and the sky, finally exhausted,
moving on.
Adrie Kusserow,
Best American Poetry 2008, from The Kenyon Review
More Poems
Out of the Box
Coaching
and
Breakthroughs with the Enneagram, Mary R. Bast, Ph.D.
Copyright © 1999. All rights reserved. Revised:
October 11, 2009