in support of Ukraine
i.
reach bone, reach drooling eyes
reach the sternums of streets that fail
to crack. reach life that caresses
the mourners, reach guns that fire
diagonal to the dead. reach missing and
missing and found, reach under
the black mattress of a miracle. reach
the wilting body. reach tattered wrists
ii.
reach shameless, reach vulnerable
and nude. reach bare arms
that cannot bear love. reach into
humanity without
looking and finding
the missing pieces. reach away,
then reach back. reach anyone
on the train of a breath
any delicate stare, any hurt
construction of a child.
iii.
reach send
reach those who fly
reach those who lift gravity
and souls to pass the time
reach brow
reach wrinkle and terrified hips
that shackle a body
reach blood that runs gray
reach mouth that runs straight
reach angel
reach divine
and dangerous mercy
reach bless
reach severely gentle!
reach on to those tender people
on the other side waiting
to never be called
reach them
iv.
with their hands
only full of open and empty. reach
out
to your children. reach out, just
enough
to hold them in your arms
Kendall Cooper is a rising high school senior based in Houston, Texas. She is an alumna of the Kenyon Young Writers Workshop and is a 2022 Adroit Journal Mentee. Kendall has won numerous Scholastic Awards for her poetry and was a semi-finalist for Houston Youth Poet Laureate. Currently, she works as a literary apprentice for Breakbread Magazine.