Only

This is only one street. One streetlamp.
It is only your face illuminated by brownstones and moonlight,
The clean shell of you.
It is only the rain, this night,
This rain like poison
Singing softly.

I am telling you that your fleeing sears me.
I am telling you that the world flees and sears.
I am telling you that sometimes, the axis does not comply;
Two hands do not meet.
But nonetheless, we turn,
We keeping turning.

Tonight, the globe quakes
And threatens
To split.
We are afraid.
We do not know who,
Or what, will come
From this darkness
Like tar.
Tonight, we are all refugees.

What sort of country would accept us like this,
Naked, without reckoning, and without
Alms?

Tonight, roses and geraniums bloom
And die quietly.
They are their own life.
They have nothing to do with us.

What sort of world would wait for us while this happens?

One street. One streetlamp. One man.
This earth like a crazed widow
Calling us back.
Here, we are beyond knowing.
We are defined by amber
And we blaze.

About the Poem:

I have been stricken by the violence of ICE and of the depths of suffering, displacement all around. As an immigrant, I long to be tethered to this world, for a place of safety as we all do, no matter our homelands. Only is about the raw intimacy of what individuals can create, keen and heightened, a home amidst the backdrop of an unmoored world. What sort of world would accept us, I ask, while this happens? Nonetheless, we keep turning, we touch and love and breathe against annihilation.

About the Poet:

Christina holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. She has taught at sundry institutions, including RI’s Frequency Writers. Her poems are included in The Path Belongs to Us, Metaphors Are Not Enough: Poetry and Prose by the Streetfeet Women, and Pangyrus. Co-organizer for The Boston Poetry Marathon, Christina raised funds for Black Lives Matter, Stop Asian Hate, and reproductive justice. In Providence, she is CoPAC liaison and proud opening reader for She/PVD Festival and the AAPI History Museum.