ELI NACHIMSON
Digital Aubade of a Burning City
after Ocean Vuong
On 19 August 2021, millions of Afghans stuck in Kabul under the Taliban documented their lives on Snapchat’s world map feature, displaying their humanness.
A post: snaking waterway shallower than hasty graves greets clothed congregation
that ask a current
swallow them to safety.
On video, pixelated men in coats that refuse to desaturate await
beside chain-link fence, beside border to destination
beyond cellphone camera chronicles.
Desperation creates blade,
slices through,
cleaves crowd to two shores embracing bridgeless river,
one side for sparse fortunate, kneeside bags in lieu
of feverish verbal farewells,
other shore makeshift homing stateless souls.
Next post: a lad looks for Taliban companion
to play Minecraft.
Next post: a moonless night upon a city
of souls not yet ghosts. Lights of houses sit upon
the horizon like glinting sea surface skeining
sunrays into watertop ornaments, in this video,
oceans of homes stay calm, bombless skies
gift dwellers another silent lullaby.
Next post: adolescent opens Call of Duty
in preparation for an in-person version of digital simulation.
Next post: anonymous fingertips cry Afghanistan is Bleeding
atop brown background.
Next post: empty ice scream stores serve scoops
to gutted childhoods and bodiless tables.
Eli Nachimson is a writer based in Los Angeles. They are a poetry reader at Adroit Journal and their work has been published in Up North Lit and Eunoia Review. Their work has been recognized by Scholastic Writing Awards, the Youngarts Foundation, and Foyle Young Poets. Find them on twitter at @SEnachimson.