'Just as Beautiful' (Poem)

Just as Beautiful

While women sit in chairs
in the Dead Sea, bodies in

black swimsuits exposed
to the sun that's gone out

in the feeding centers
in Somalia, wild mustard

blooms again to knee-level
in Beit Hanun, and RPGs

land where they will
in Damascus. The buzzing

of drones breaks through
quiet, leaving dust: more bone.

Fleeing Mosul, the Iraqis
wait for tents and handouts,

trying to explain to children
the non-alternative fact that

is the word "displacement"—
of taking what you can carry

and leaving behind your dead.
It's in spaces between borders

life's lived, and lost in moments
just as beautiful there as here.

© 2017 Maureen E. Doallas