GUARDS AT THE BORDER

by Wendy Hoffman

A Mexican court issued arrest orders Thursday for six people in relation to the fire that killed 39 migrants at a detention facility this week in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, according to the federal prosecutor leading the investigation. Sara Irene Herrerías said they include three officials from the National Immigration Institute, two private security guards contracted by the agency and the detained migrant accused of starting the fire. She said five of the six had already been arrested and would face charges of homicide and causing injuries. At least 39 migrants died after apparently starting a fire inside a holding cell at the facility Monday night. More than two dozen others were injured. —AP, March 31, 2023

Keys dangled from belts

shone on nearby hooks

jangled next to coins in their pockets

Guards turned away, heads bent

as if in prayer, slithering into escape

escape for themselves, their moist

skin, escape from screaming mattresses

horrified lives who stepped upon

this land of freedom to meet souls

that judged who deserved to die

and those with burnt alive 

consciences

Wendy Hoffman has published three memoirs: The Enslaved Queen, White Witch in a Black Robe, and A Brain of My Own. The Enslaved Queen has been translated and published in Germany (Asanger-Verlag, 2021). Her book of poetry Forceps was published along with a book of essays From the Trenches written with Dr. Alison Miller. Her fourth memoir After Amnesia is published on the SmartNews and Survivorship websites. It also has been translated into German. Her poetry book Belonging is forthcoming from Kelsay Books.

THE NEW USA

by Wendy Hoffman

The Supreme Court #2

voted 24 to 1

not to allow men to impregnate

female humans, plus to find guilty

all those who ‘aid and abet’ them

in this endeavor

such as florists, chocolatiers,

romantic restaurateurs,

violinists,

other musicians,

and makers

of 400 thread Egyptian cotton sheets.

Oh, and it ruled that only females may carry guns.

Wendy Hoffman has published three memoirs, The Enslaved Queen, White Witch in a Black Robe, and in 2020 A Brain of My Own.  The Enslaved Queen has been translated into German. Her book of poetry Forceps was also published along with a book of essays, From the Trenches, written with Alison Miller. Her most recent memoir After Amnesia is published on the SmartNews and Survivorship websites. It has been translated into German. What gives her life meaning is helping other surviving victims.

SHAME

by Wendy Hoffman

About 800 people, including children, are hiding beneath a chemical factory in the key eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, now 80% held by Russian troops, as more western allies promise additional missile systems and arms to Kyiv. Photograph: Families sheltering beneath the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk earlier in the war. Credit: Marko Đurica/Reuters via The Guardian, June 2, 2022.

Amid mounting fears over the war’s impact on world food supplies, Putin is due to meet the head of the African Union, Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, on Friday to discuss “freeing up stocks of cereals and fertilisers,” Sall’s office said. The meeting, in the south-western Russian city of Sochi, was organised at the Kremlin’s invitation, Dakar said. Ukraine and Russia are major suppliers of wheat and other cereals to Africa, while Russia is a key producer of fertiliser. —The Guardian, June 2, 2022

An operation to bring grain out from Ukraine through Lithuania, with considerable political hurdles, is just one option being considered amid warnings of mass starvation around the world. —The New York Times, June 1, 2022

I buy bread from a Ukrainian shop.

He bakes, his wife takes orders.

Fridays, they sell Miche,

Wednesdays, Levain.

Today her face is blanched wheat,

a baked skull.

She stops wearing make-up,

her hair shows grey.

She never talks much.

She has no words.

Their families remain there—

probably old Nazis—

as Russia conscripts its minorities,

its refugees and now its citizens

of all ages to destroy and die.

The world sacrifices

the earth that feeds us,

that once seeded land now skeleton.

Her hunched over husband sweats,

pounds moist dough.

I hand her thirteen US dollars,

she closes the window.

Wendy Hoffman has published three memoirs, The Enslaved Queen, White Witch in a Black Robe, and in 2020 A Brain of My Own.  The Enslaved Queen has been translated into German. Her book of poetry Forceps was also published along with a book of essays, From the Trenches, written with Alison Miller. Her most recent memoir After Amnesia is published on the SmartNews and Survivorship websites. It has been translated into German. What gives her life meaning is helping other surviving victims.

MISSION

by Wendy Hoffman

Credit: Doug Mills/The New York Times, May 29, 2020.

The moon lifts its holy head like a sanctified queen.
Humans should not be there or leave bent over, backwards, reverent.
But competitive men are curious which they believe gives them the right.
This country, which turned away victims but
invited defeated Nazi scientists,
rips the untouchable veil from the bottom up
and ejects transparent astronauts,
stooges, sacrificed heroes.
A large striped boot print tattoos crevasses, crevices,
craters.

When I was four playing outside, a neighborhood boy twice my age or more

wanted to see me down there. He pointed his skinny finger. I squeezed my thighs

together but already trained never to say no, I watched my cotton undies fall to

my turned in ankles. The curious boy who rode his bicycle through hilly blocks

pretended to be a scientist. He inspected and had a good look.

They have a good photographic look while jobless people
on earth look up and remain hungry.
I watch rockets on TV,
hide my reddened face from our irreverence.


Wendy Hoffman had amnesia for most of her life. When she regained memory late in life, she wrote books about what she had forgotten. Karnac Books, London, published two of her memoirs in 2014 and 2015, as well as her first book of poetry in 2016. She co-authored a book of essays in 2018 for Routledge. Her third memoir is forthcoming from Aeon Books. Hoffman has a MFA and lives on the Olympic Peninsula with her little dog.

FANTASY

by Wendy Hoffman

When I speak to women who rejoice

in their husbands not
battering them this month,

I say, "You’re doing a Susan Collins."

Wendy Hoffman had amnesia for most of her life. When she regained memory late in life, she wrote books about what she had forgotten. Karnac Books, London, published two of her memoirs in 2014 and 2015, as well as her first book of poetry in 2016. She co-authored a book of essays in 2018 for Routledge. Her third memoir is forthcoming from Aeon Books. Hoffman has a MFA and lives on the Olympic Peninsula with her little dog.

AT THE TEXAS BORDER CROSSING

by Wendy Hoffman





Justice is a pebble under the rug you trip over,
a slipped stitch on embroidery,
mail that fails to be delivered.

I want to give my kids life
so the gangs won’t rape
or kill them,
so we can buy food, not steal.

Does that make me a criminal?
It makes me unwanted.
I didn’t think we’d make it to the border
but we did, thirsty, filthy.

I thought the children would faint,
I carried the youngest.
Asylum: that was for the old days.

The stiff legged officers pace like dictators.
Some enjoy, some hate, their job.
All my children severed from my spine,

its sound like a building demolished.
Our pleading cries carry no weight,
our filled lungs don’t matter.

Will I hug empty air for the rest of my life?
I don’t know where they took my children,
I may never feel or smell them again.
The space between us is deeper than a grave.

How can people in uniforms rip out my soul?
This theft will be engraved in my children’s minds forever.
First starvation, then murder of our bond.
They send me home alone.

What will they do with my children,
who cares about them?
Asylum: a dream from the past,
democracy doesn’t exist.

The gangs are restless,
they know I am here,
they prowl.

Wendy Hoffman is a retired social worker. Karnac Books, London, published her memoirs in 2014 and 2015, and a co-authored book of essays, in 2017. Her books are now with Aeon Publishers in England and Routlege in New York. Her first book of poetry was published in 2016. A new memoir is forthcoming. She has a MFA in creative writing and lives on the Olympic Peninsula with her dog.