to return we must all go into the wind

by Billy Howell-Sinnard
The Writer's Block
Honorable Mention, December 2015
Judged by Barbara Siegel Carlson


homeless
the child isn’t sleeping
beside the fence

what country
do i call my own?

his scarf
flutters in the wind
fallen flag

for what will i die
any less than life?

distance
too far too close
now silence

is my grave dug
from the soil of the heart?

a fence
doesn’t keep out
the wind


Through its haiku-like lyrics and unanswerable, compelling questions the subjects asks, this poem addresses themes of homelessness and the plight of refugees, as well as mortality in a penetrating and paradoxical manner. --Barbara Siegel Carlson