Trimming the Garden

“We (forgive us) / lived happily during the war.”
-Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic

Last night I dreamt
my arms gone.

                                        Today, I put on worn gloves.

Go outside and kneel
with the dead.                                      Right now

                               children remove
                            bodies from streets.

Hungry-hands hold
rifles at breakfast.

                                          I dig up dirt.

Examine the weeds
           and the roots.

                                         Where indigo shrubs thin,
                                         aphids appear

and crowd my leg.

                            Red, swollen bodies
                            drumming with mine.

Flickers of flame
like candles at an altar.

I’d pray, but nothing’s holy
about murder

                                                               (we can do anything
                                                               in god’s name).

And by the way,
men lie.

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Havilah Barnett is a poet and MFA candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her poetry explores trauma, mental illness, and the effects of mutism in a deafening world. She’s currently a TIMBER Talks Editor, and was previously an Editorial Intern for Boulevard Magazine, as well as Assistant Poetry Editor for Pleiades. Havilah loves sharing space with animals and experiencing life as a highly sensitive empath.