2021 Poetry & Storytelling Competition Volume 4 | Page 16

The Floor is So Cold

Rich Kearns

Life had become so dangerous her abuela could no longer wait for signals from the north.

Tiny Angelina was sent into the desert night to escape the war inside the war

there was no choice.

Big men with strange voices and guns caught them outside the river bed past the barbwire dawn.

She was sent to a hard square room with no furniture no blankets and bright lights on constantly.

The floor is so cold she told her sobbing mother my lips are blue. The men with the guns made me sign some papers.

The floor is so cold Mama When can I come home? Where are you?