MADNESS BY THE EUPHRATES

Down by the river,
they take sandbagged positions and
eye the rainbow across the water.

Blow torch
gutted
the facilities
of my baby,
she fertile like circuit boxes.

On the condition of
anonymity, I shot
her dead.

The world powers who fought here
take me for a ride
in metal canoes. They
send me away from
the hulking here.

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Sources and Method: I combined small sections from the song “Down by the River” by Neil Young with sections from the article “An Ancient River in Syria Sections Off a Modern War” from the New York Times. Though the former exists in no strict time or place and the ladder is very grounded in a historical and geographical context, both are very similar in that they document violence where there once was life.

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Natalie Jarrett is a high school senior from the Bay Area, California