PTSD

I think for the majority of us, PTSD isn't really something we can relate to. I can't imagine up a traumatic memory and explore the world pretending to be someone with PTSD. In that sense, their world is unfamiliar to us. In a short series of Haikus, Alan Pelaez Lopez, describes dreams he has of a past memories, titled "Zapotec Crossers (or, Haiku I Write Post-PTSD Nightmares)":

i

Waves smack the body,
Nayeli, seven, drowning.
Spring: crossing season.

ii

Summer indicates
the migration will be “safe.”
Yej Susen, three, sprints.

iii

Inda Jani, one,
knows to crawl under the fence — 
she was trained all fall.

iv

At four ai-em, Yao,
twelve, is sewn inside car seat;
winter will protect.

v
Itzel, five, plays dead.
Border patrol agents see
her body — they leave.

It leaves a frightening image in your head, where these young kids have to cross the border in various ways- obviously in ways that will probably leave a lasting effect on them for the rest of their lives.