"The Townspeople Watched Them Take Alfonso."
Now each of us is
a witness stand--
Vasenka watches us watch four soldiers
throw Alfonso Barabinski on the sidewalk.
We let them take him, all of us cowards.
What we don't say
we carry in our suitcases, our coat pockets, our nostrils.
Across the street they wash him with fire hoses.
First he screams,
then he stops.
So much sunlight,
a t-shirt falls off a clothesline and an old man stops,
picks it up, presses it to his face.
Neighbors jostle to watch him thrown
on the sidewalk like a vaudeville act--
Ta Da.
In so much sunlight--
each of us
is a witness stand--
They take Alfonso
and no one stands up.
Our silence stands up for us.