David Joez Villaverde

今野真理, 吉沢正美, 難波絵梨香, 野本綾子

800px-Untitled_from_the_Abstract_series.jpg
Untitled from The Abstract Series by Sorab Sepehri

all we have are words
four children dead, no answers
no closure, no end

to words that will not die, a
phone that rings but stays silent

ash and bone and teeth
photos of clothes in a box
our hands clasped to pray

that we never read the words
here: Mari. Cremated. Bones.

Investigate. Prove.
the emptiness of this dust
and this obscene hope

of life after death or life
after life or just not death

and we want an end
just not this one, not this box
these teeth, not these words

this story that will not die
four children dead, no answers

 

About the writer:
David Joez Villaverde is a Peruvian American multidisciplinary artist living in Detroit, Michigan. He is the winner of Black Warrior Review‘s 2018 poetry contest and his poems in Crab Fat Magazine and L’Éphémère Review are 2018 Best of the Net nominees. He has been recently published or is forthcoming in Yemassee, RHINO Poetry, The Indianapolis Review, Yes Poetry, and Occulum.

Image: Untitled from The Abstract Series by Sorab Sepehri (1928-1980). Oil on canvas. 97 x 130 cm. Circa 1970. Public domain.