ANNE COLLINS

Never So Violent

We champions of the free
lack wonder, endanger
our indifferent democracy
smarting from historical
atrocity denied, corrupting
our easy affluence. Grasping
nervous platitudes, the face
of everyday coercion is
hot and close.

I came here for freedom.
I was shocked to be taken.

Beating the pain,
patrolling the evidence,
those imprisoned refugees
suffer, invisible as hordes,
risk their voices again,
to politics and our morals
reverting to law and
order calls for the troops.
Why then are we stunned
to encounter the struggle
of memory against this
legal exercise of force?