Sonnet: On Having to Keep Quiet
[T]hey live in the shadows, fearful of deportation back to the threats of their home countries.
– U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
Each moment’s missile,
weightless
atop
its summit
of air,
can plummet,
and whistle
to where,
beneath
its apogee—
each refugee
(holding map,
and breath)
is stateless.
Steve Kronen’s most recent and forthcoming work is in Agni, Image, Plume, On the Seawall, upstreet, American Journal of Poetry, and Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review. His collections are Homage to Mistress Oppenheimer (Eyewear Publishing), Splendor (BOA Editions), and Empirical Evidence (University of Georgia Press). His website is www.stevekronen.com.
Header photo by Hamara, courtesy Shutterstock.
