Watching Gleichschaltung
If you are squeamish
don’t prod the
beach rubble
—Sappho
you can forget that
old Dresden forgot the Slavs
went modern after some scorch
that you love sushi
that Truman slept well
that the strange soil
of Rwanda turned fertile
& Fallujah’s children were
gifted uranium bones
that you watch memory
die from discontent & the
ghosts of dark remedy
escape from their crypts.
Kevin Swanwick, April 2025
Sappho translation, Mary Barnard, University of California Press.