The U is for United

Attention shoppers,

We have a lost child.

She’s waiting at the front,

She’s been waiting for a long time.

I asked her where her family is,

I asked her what her name is.

She pulls at her bloody clothes and says nothing,

She clenches her bloody fists and says nothing.

She has a shopping cart full of things she can’t afford.

She watches other people’s carts, and takes things she likes.

They look at the gun in her hands and say nothing.

It’s pointed at her head, it’s pointed at my head.

It’s covered in hundreds of handprints.

She’s covered in millions of fingerprints.

Fingerprints on screens, fingerprints on keyboards, fingerprints furious, outraged, horrified.

Fingerprints and eyes and bodies, her bodies, our bodies.

There’s cameras all over this store, did you know?

I can see where they’re hiding.

I can see they’re coming to claim her.

Some have come to defend her,

Some have fallen defending her.

Her name is their name.

Her skin is red and all shades of brown.

Her tears are drops of ice that shatter on the ground.

The store is closing soon.

She longs to be out of the dark,

But she’s still waiting at the front.