“Boy Child” by Gerda Govine Ituarte
Boy child what could I have done differently
Boy child where does the blame live
Boy child quiet
Boy child did not bother anyone
Boy child shy
Boy child withdrew at fourteen
Boy child scared to talk on phone
Boy child wanted to be a neuroscientist
Boy child isolated
Boy child attended college
Boy child never hurt anyone
Boy child communicated by email
Boy child visits home slowed down
Boy child disappeared
Boy child bought guns
Boy child stockpiled body armor
Boy child mass murderer
Boy child my own son.
Boy child what could I have done differently
Boy child where does the blame live
Boy child if I had known
I’d be crawling on all fours to get to you
Boy child
I didn’t realize that your loudest cry for help was silence.
*La Ganga, Maria L., Los Angeles Times, 7/30/2015
____________________
Share your response to this work, in any form, here
Gerda Govine Ituarte Artist Statement:
Her work appeared in The Altadena Poetry Review Anthology, Coiled Serpent, Journal of Modern Poetry, Indefinite Space, Spectrum, San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, Dryland Los Angeles Arts and Letters, Ms. Aligned and Frontera Esquina Magazine in Tijuana, Mexico. She read at Lit Crawl L.A, Avenue 50 Studio, The World Stage, Holy Grounds, The Coffee Gallery Backstage, Tia Chucha Cultural Center & Bookstore, Altadena and Pasadena Libraries and in Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico and the UK. She self-published two poetry collections, “Oh,Where is My Candle Hat?” (2012) and “Alterations |Thread Light Through Eye of Storm,”
(2015), www.poetryartbookstation.com.
