What started with the breaching of a wall
one time zone west of here, suggesting that
some rule might yet obtain besides mere force,
now ends within a single shortened lifespan
as tens of thousands are thrown down in dust.
The battle that remains is to record,
for all the hardened future’s disbelief,
what once has been. What yet again might be.
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J.D. Smith has published four collections of poetry, most recently The Killing Tree (2016). His individual poems have appeared in Dark Mountain, The New Verse News, Terrain and Zócalo, and he has received a Fellowship in Poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts. He works as an editor and writer in Washington, DC, where he lives with his wife Paula Van Lare, their rescue animals and a great deal of trepidation.
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