TRINA SCORDO

THE DISAPPEARED

cabs have no doors
and run on bald wheels
missing children held
in the wrong arms
taken from parents
on sidewalks and streets

prisoners roped together
in a chopper at night
leather boots
thick heels and blades
stomp into a ribcage
pushed into the South Atlantic
waves cut cotton shirts
caught between pebbles and rocks

death squads raid classrooms and wombs
soldiers not trained for ceremony
no coffins wrapped in flags

signs in the plaza
are crooked
hand painted red
terrazzo floors
covered with candy wrappers
a mother asks does anyone know
who this sandal belongs to

a 10 year old girl
waits for a bus
watches for planes
and whispers
maybe one of these men in white uniforms
is my father
 

Trina Scordo is a south Jersey poet and curator who has recently taken on the much-blessed and utterly thankless task of managing the NJ Online Poetry Calendar. Her work has appeared in Long Shot and is forthcoming in several other bleeding edge litzines.

Read more of Trina's work on Poetz 2002.