Carnage's End by Yaela Teplinsky

[This is to be read as an acrostic poem]

Please, send prayers, illuminating the

lightless moments

effusing rounded edges

absent the acrimony of the

streets and rues and avenues

emptied of their peacemakers,

tell your loved ones and all your ones and all your not-your ones

how much you love them

every single day, don’t let them forget, lest they become

creations

again (another) destroyed

reflecting on the

neverending violence

as we wait for a

g-dsend, an

end,

mark me not with sorrow but with the sound and light of

a new day, for we are all babies who cry out inside, inside out

kiss my teensy toes wiggling fingers open-shut-open eyes and don’t you dare forget the tips of my ears, the

edges of my psyche, it’s your job to make it soft and keep it that way too, don’t stop, you can’t stop, not now

infuse this bloodlusting bleeding out, this blood-loss blood lost shard of

time with new matter, clean sheets, fresh ground, new Earth

souls come

together

once again,

please.