Essentially Hart Island
It's burden enough
to have to bury in ritual
those we love & engage
but to not know when
& where & how our kinfolk died
or whether & not they were ever tended to
is an act of indifference
on the part of our state
greater than the blasphemy
of relegating death
to a potter's field secreted &
unattended by the amulets
of food & drink or flowers' wreath
we would have placed
beside a prayer's shawl
such a state is treason
to the very core of what we mean
when we say, 'human'.
Louis Reyes Rivera
May 9, 2010
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