No one wants to admit to bombing the girls’ school in Iran
but we’ve seen their graves gaping at us
on the doomscrolls
orderly rectangles dug in rows
waiting to swallow the bodies of
165 school girls and staff
most between ages 7 and 12.

Ohh uoh,
Schoolgirls of Minab,
you shouldn’t have to pay for this

There are no words.
No protest poem can avenge you;
your souls are not replaceable.
Weren’t you meant to do great things?

O uo uuh anh …

Words don’t work anymore.
They’ve been twisted and hollowed-out
captured and released from meaning.
It’s all just sounds now.

uuh ohh uuuu …

What am I supposed to do?
I can’t write a war poem.
It’s hard to do anything I’m supposed to.

When I close my eyes I still see the graves
hovering like sunspots through the blue light.

-ag, 3/6/26

abstract digital painting created by alicia grega to illustrate the poem
“Tears for Minab.” Digital painting by Alicia Grega.