Sanctuary [after Allen, Texas, 2023]

TIMOTHY REE | CALIFORNIA

Moms pops in a mall parking lot

I’m told at a mall mauled by pops moms in a mall parking gunned down at a mall maimed in the lot in the mouth at the mall mangled jaws eye sockets I was six my brother three

I’m told at a mall when guns were still in our thoughts prayers the pop loud clink off the hood tight snare drum of thoughts prayers

Paradiddle

rimshot double offa car doors the flam ricochet into my brother’s left temple they said we sang in a temple we wept wailed we crept the aisle what else but stare the saints in the stained glass let us rename them

Cindy / Kyu Cho my parents my brother James / Daniela / Sophia swaddled child in the middle

Mendoza / Aishwarya

Thatikonda / Elio Cumana-Rivas / Christian LaCour we say them alive tonight this sanctuary listen now the sea the seagulls sea lions by the sea a family of seals otters a choir of hunted fish still rising to the moonlit surface.