In the Beginning

We in America
wake to the horror,
1200 dead, 200 abducted,
Israel poised  to destroy
as God did to Sodom.

We swear: “Never forget”
or: “Free Palestine”
or some other such meme of the moment

Babel
the towers at city center in flames
smoke and harbor stench
billowing silver in the sun,

and so it goes on and on.

We care as we watch on TV
but we live in an orchard,

figs and cedar, fresh bread and warm shade, 
clean work and time stretching 
to the evening cool.

The innocents and righteous
of Israel and Gaza
may as well have died

with Lot’s nameless wife,
killed by God for caring
because He never did
even for his own,
so why should we?

We in America
may as well have lived

as imbeciles in Eden
where knowledge was forbidden
when hate and humanity
were new.


Our President’s Prayer

If I slave each host 
to her fetus

yet separate migrant mothers
from their kids; 

if I name queer love
Abomination

all, that our nation 
shall live 
Your holy Word;

if I am a fraud, a pervert,
graceless, for sale,
and a vicious coward;

am I not just a sinner
doing Your holy work?

Am I not, though human,
just like You?

Don Krieger is a poet, an essayist, and a biomedical researcher whose focus is the electric activity within the brain. He is author of the hybrid collections “Discovery” (Cyberwit, 2020) and “When Danger Is Past, Who Remembers?” (Milk and Cake Press, 2022), and a Creative Nonfiction Foundation Science-as-Story Fellow. His poetry has appeared in Seneca Review, The Asahi Shimbun, Beltway Quarterly, American Journal of Nursing, and others. His essays have appeared in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Times of Israel, and others. His poetry has been translated into Farsi, Greek, Italian, German, Turkish, Romanian, and Portuguese.

Featured Image: “Yearn” from JiaJia licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. “The eye of a yak in DaQingShan Wildlife Park in Hohhot, China, reflects the bars of its enclosure.”