Trauma / Traumatic
Flagged - Words in Exile: Entry 7
This word was flagged by the U.S. government for erasure in 2025. Click Here. Or not.
bakersfield. august. one hundred and six. a Honda Civic in the lot behind the Walmart. the baby in the back seat. the bottle on the dash gone warm. his wife inside / asking the manager about the bathroom again. he came back from Ramadi in 2007. the case worker said the SSVF application had been sent back. the words trauma and at-risk and vulnerable had been flagged. the administration struck them from federal grants last year. the nonprofit revised. the federal office revised again. denied. by the time the appeal moved, the landlord had moved their things to the curb. a diaper bag. a Bronze Star in a Ziploc. a wedding photograph. formula. the baby has been crying for an hour. the wife comes back. she says they let me use it. she says I asked nicely. minneapolis. february. fourteen degrees. a 1994 Buick in the lot behind the VFW. the engine running. the heater working when it works. a man seventy-three. Da Nang. 1969. his SSVF rent assistance was approved in november. in january the grantee's contract was not renewed. the words trauma-informed and vulnerable had been removed from the grant language by federal order. the check stopped coming. the eviction came through on the eighteenth. his PTSD is still in his file. they cannot strike PTSD from his file. the billing code protects it. the word survives because money flows through it. so they kill the money instead. they kill the case worker's hours. they kill the rent assistance. they kill the room the man was supposed to sleep in. a paperback on the dash. The Things They Carried. he has read it forty times. he keeps it because his wife gave it to him before she died. his wife died in 2019. the apartment was in her name. the dog in the passenger seat is a small terrier. her name is Margaret. she was his wife's dog. she is twelve years old. she has not eaten since tuesday. his mail goes to the Vet Center. when he can drive he picks it up. when the Buick will not start he does not. the denial letter sat for thirty-seven days. by the time he read it the appeal window had closed. the paperwork is the weapon. the revising is the weapon. the case worker who turned over. the fax machine at the library that costs a dollar a page. the man who is supposed to advocate for himself while sleeping in a Buick is the joke they tell in the federal office in washington where mental health was struck from a list of allowable terms. the word trauma was struck. the word at-risk was struck. the word vulnerable was struck. the phrase trauma-informed care was struck. the people who struck the words have housing. the people who struck the words have not buried their wives. the people who struck the words have never slept in a 1994 Buick in fourteen degrees with a dog named Margaret who has not eaten since tuesday. the baby is still crying in bakersfield. the dog is still not eating in minneapolis. the words are still on the list. the men are still in their cars. this is what I'm saying. this is what the administration has done. this is what they will not name.
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Your words are so powerful!
Wow. Just wow. Excellent work.