Argon Sun

By: Halley Kunen 🕊

Argon Sun

This is our world
where we put a rose on the head of a decapitated human
to pretentiously capture the strife
of an unimaginable iniquity
for which there are no words.

This is our world
where 8 months after an incomparable genocide
we repost an AI image
a tawdry acrylic over massacre
cupronickel from the bullet to make it irradiant
while white people
learn extra
to sit in silence
with Tibetan flags
claiming the whole color spectrum
but only in a way that suits them.

They say we all have the same sky
but how can we
I swear in the West
our corporations weld it
an extra cyan
while ignoring science
while the rest of the world’s
is infused with arsine
warnings a nescient opal
masquerading as a colony of gulls.

Emma Lazarus said
“None of us are free ‘til all of us are free,”
but no one listened—
violence begets violence
and the people who claim to be the most free
are the most defended
I wish I could incise through a soul
as easily as a plane blade slices through the air
but now I just wish the earth would tear
and guzzle us all in
except for the Palestinians.

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About the Author

Halley Kunen’s poetry is mostly inspired by nature, deep emotions, and peace studies. She first started taking writing poems seriously when she joined Stain’d Arts of Denver, a literary and social justice-oriented nonprofit, by contributing work and performing at their open mics in 2017. Her other interests include yoga, music, and talking to strangers (“bridging the gap.”) She has a chapbook published by Bottlecap Press, titled Permineralized Remains, and her work has been included in the Winged Moon Magazine, Catheartic Press, and others.