"A FUCKING VULTURE": AN EKPHRASIS POEM

by Julia Castillo

Screenshot taken from https://mopa.org/exhibitions/nagasakijourney/

There is no set time you’re given to admire a death

Mummies are acceptable to gawk at because of their age

A callous forms, protecting the spectator.

To more recent murders,

I am unsure of how thick the buffer.

The only way to tell is to prick

And see if it draws blood

So here is my needle.

Burning geysers of steam swath through the rubble

Ascending into a murky sky

Flowing past half-gone goners

Taking with it some spoils

The remains of which lay charcoaled on the ground.

Some less-murdered people lumber about the smoke

Others offer hand-touch and medicine

And those too torched to speak scream through black eye sockets

Skin pulled back from their teeth

Arms outstretched and stripped of bone

Mouth ajar

Bomb cologne.

The sight of shriveled figures writhing in pain reminds me of Pompeii,

Frozen agony

Arouse curious tourists

I among them.

Death like Nukes hits different.

Vesuvius had no agenda,

Hurricanes don’t hate coastliners,

But my nation did this on purpose.

With a roll of its shoulders and a turn of its hands I hear:

“It had to be done”

And I think of my nation’s love of barbeque.

“Don’t look at it”

And I think of how my nation loves to turn its gaze downward

“It was a long time ago”

And I think of my nation’s enduring affection for brutality even now

Loud speakers blare out impending doom and cry for olden times,

Where a man could visit a malt shop, hang a neighbor in his tree

Catch the evening news on a big sofa,

Absorbing history scrubbed clean.

Perhaps admire is the wrong word for death.

Perhaps it is just the process of burning the image of it into the mind.

Every small part of it so there can be no doubt, no denial, no

“Well, it wasn’t that bad”

((refusal to acknowledge past and current evils makes me want to explode))

So, if eyes are to be averted,

Maybe the ears can be of service.

I’ll pick apart atrocities with a scalping object

Announce vile details like an autopsy

Relay the smells of ravenous nationalism

Putrid and nose-coating

And wipe soot covered skin

And drag blood curdled claws

All over your proud striped flag.

Listen:

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Julia Castillo

Julia Castillo is an undergraduate student studying English at New Mexico State University. She is the current editor of the university's literary magazine, The Crimson Thread, and spends her time reading literary works and creating her own