IMPORTANT TO US

A GUEST POEM BY Byron Hamel

They force you into these
Little rows
Industrial linoleum
Worn down to bedrock
Where you wait
Until they are as urgent as you are
About the death and mayhem
Please wait calmly
While the world caves in
And you stay at the bottom
If you live
They caught me crying
This time about Hiroshima and Nagasaki
I’d been in the middle of saying
It was the right call
But the shadows of babies said otherwise
Please hold
For a century
Until it happens again
And you’re so in it
That you can’t see your way through
Your call is important to us