{"id":111248,"date":"2021-09-22T11:41:13","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T18:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=111248"},"modified":"2021-10-19T14:50:17","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T21:50:17","slug":"jonestown","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=111248","title":{"rendered":"Jonestown"},"content":{"rendered":"

(This poem originally appeared in the Minnesota Review, Number 81, 2018, pp. 9-10. The pdf version of this poem \u2013 with its unique typography \u2013 is here<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

I kept wondering if it was an accident
\nif they didn\u2019t know<\/span>
\nwhat the<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\npurple<\/span>
\nheld<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I kept
\nwondering if the parents didn\u2019t know<\/span>
\nwhat the children
\nwere drinking<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I kept wondering
\nwhy their tongues didn\u2019t stop<\/span>
\nthe poison<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I
\nkept wondering
\nwhy the guy in the glasses<\/span>
\nmade up a god
\nthat hated children<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I kept wondering
\nabout the rows<\/span><\/span>
\nthe neatly stacked<\/span>
\nshirts and jeans
\nlimbs and hair<\/span>
\nsometimes children
\nbeneath<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I kept
\nwondering<\/span>
\nhow long they lay
\nawake how long<\/span>
\nuntil they
\ntrickled away<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I
\nkept<\/span>
\nwondering
\nwho the mixers<\/span>
\nwho the servers
\nwho the stirrers<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2003\u2003\u2003\u2003kept\u2003\u2003wondering
\nabout\u2003\u2003the\u2003\u2003path<\/span>
\nhow\u2003\u2003many\u2003\u2003steps\u2003\u2003how
\nlong\u2003\u2003the\u2003\u2003lines\u2003\u2003how<\/span>
\nmany\u2003\u2003children\u2003\u2003how\u2003\u2003many
\nthought\u2003\u2003they\u2003\u2003were\u2003\u2003waiting<\/span>
\nfor\u2003\u2003something\u2003\u2003good\u2003\u2003at\u2003\u2003the\u2003\u2003end<\/p>\n

Ikeptwonderinghowthebodies
\narrangedthemselvesdid<\/span><\/span>
\nthechildrenliedown<\/span>
\nFirsttobecoveredor
\ndidtheyslip<\/span>
\norweretheypulled
\nunder<\/p>\n

I if<\/span> kept you<\/span> wondering only<\/span> if drank<\/span> you half<\/span> would the<\/span> still cup<\/span> die<\/p>\n

I k e p t w o n d e r i n g w h a t t h e d u s t w o u l d h o l d<\/p>\n

I kept<\/span><\/span>
\nwondering if God<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nwas watching<\/span>
\nI kept wondering
\nwas it accident<\/span>
\nit was wondering<\/span><\/span>
\nwhat was I<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nI was it<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nI kept it<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(This poem originally appeared in the Minnesota Review, Number 81, 2018, pp. 9-10. The pdf version of this poem \u2013 with its unique typography \u2013 is here.) I kept wondering if it was an accident if they didn\u2019t know what the purple held I kept wondering if the parents didn\u2019t know what the children were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":111220,"menu_order":47,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-111248","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111248"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111255,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111248\/revisions\/111255"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/111220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}