The Blue Marble

I walked slowly across the empty landscape

my head bent low,  deep in thought

here I stand in the long empty Camp

struggling to understand what happened

an internment camp filled with thousands

of Japanese American prisoners,

a school, a store, a post office

and the remains of a dozen guard stations

now only slabs of cement,

piles of blackened charcoal

pushed to the edges of each carefully numbered block

the ground now covered with nails

The entire Topaz Interment Camp

razed, pushed from sight and memory

hidden from guilt, far from town,

far from their homes,

now tucked in tight neat rows.

they lived with little to bring comfort

barren of life as they knew it.

so little to remind them of who they were

of what they had been

Shards of a broken plate with a delicate design

imprinted on one side

a rusty chimney pipe stranded

all swept clean in the desert winds

It was here that I found a single blue marble

sitting on the edge of an ant pile.

I picked it up and wiped it clean.

I rolled it over and over in my hand.

I carried it for a time,

in my thoughts I saw a little girl

playing with her single toy.

cramped in tight quarters

so little of what once was carefree.

Those dark eyes and shiny black hair

punctuated the differences

that threatened innocence

a mother, a father not able to supply daily needs

brothers off to war to prove allegiance

to the flag that now flew above the camp

that held them captive

This camp though tight and fearful

was made home by a single beautiful plate,

by art created from so little.

reminders of what they had been

school teams organized and played

by these Americans far from town-

looked at suspiciously and pushed

to the distant desert, exiled

This idea so wrong,
 the penalty so severe

erased by bulldozers and fire

left to fade from memory

this camp named for a gemstone

slowly formed by heat and time

I saw them here in my mind

walking proudly, playing skillfully,

eating, laughing, learning, shining.

I cannot forget them

my emotions rise as I quietly return the blue marble

held sacred in my hands, cradled for a time

as this camp held them,

it became hallowed

I remember