poem || Sheila E. Murphy

On Learning of Erasure of a Face Light

Flesh tones of the children's faces change
The instant paint shifts faces to a flesh tone
Singular

Flesh tones of the children's faces can be subtracted
And divided by however
Many tones of flesh to yield one flesh

Flesh tones of the children craft the face
Tones and the facial
Features and the fragile eyes of viewers

Flesh tones of the children show
On heavy wooden signs carried
By the delicate and outraged viewers hefting signs

Flesh tones of the children's faces
Match a prior earth and do not match
Some natural resources the color of a single face

Flesh tones of the children threshold
Early winter snow light
And remove the natural tones of night

Flesh tones of the children draft
The miniscule eruptions into flight
For safety does not happen easily

Flesh tones of the children unearth
Space for viewers who revere
A certain tone of face