Laurel Benjamin

THE FORCEPS OF WAR

curled inside the safe-room // she remembers
floating in a sea of hospital-

white minerals with her mother

a bullet
screams // illumination

she texts they're coming

the last anyone hears //

// after

someone has to milk the cows

they took her // they left her body // they burned the saferoom
all these things are true

// now there is only rust

a girl's doll // porcelain dirt-covered arms
// pried off

rain resolves the pasture
calves are pulled out of a moo //

tuck into blue // despite wells wrought dry