May Golden Shovel poem #7

source: Child’s Grave Is Earliest Known Burial Site in Africa

 

The boy is the last to die. The child’s

grave is simple because his people are exhausted from digging grave

after grave. The sickness comes from outside, is

strange, with symptoms not seen before. Its earliest

sign is a rash creeping up the body from the feet. It resists all known

remedies. The people bury the dead far from their village, a site

cursed by unknown forces unresponsive to sacrifices. The site

is avoided by the people, but children dare to dart in

and out, playing in a land they do not call Africa.

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I’m continuing to use Terrance Hayes’s Golden Shovel poem format, as proposed by the Sunday New York Times "At Home" section, for 30 Poems in 30 Days during National Poetry Month.

 

Take a newspaper headline that attracts you.

Use each word in the line as the end word for each line in your poem.

Keep the end words in order.

Describe the story that the headline is for.

The poem does not have to be about the same subject as the headline that creates the end words.