Saturday, December 3, 2016

soul murder



soul murder 

listen, 
banging on the back door 
files of despairing dead arrive
flies flapping in swirls of night
damning anatomy of soul murder rises -
screeching, souls pulled over razor pointed
heinous history, burned, beaten, shot, stabbed, 
water hosed, dog-ravaged, hanged from trees, 
dragged behind cars, left to die on wire fencing, 
our myriad murders, our unprotected heroes -of 
then, now ripped in hellish heave backward again, 
screeching in righteous recrimination draw messages
in their crusted blood spilled for naught,here they are 
pulled from places of rest, leaning in exhausted  agony - 
these resurrected, recriminating warriors of past struggles 
won-now defeated long after the fact, faces of disgust  push 
patterns of themselves through the net of the creaky screen door -
come to shake their heads, eyes deep-dark in agony of our betrayal 
our permitting this 
racism reload - 
reinvigorated and 
balloted as normal 
embracing the dark
seeking spirits to 
destroy 
listen,
learn
light,
fight
now




12 comments:

  1. Wow...strong writing. Especially haunting is this bit...
    faces of disgust push
    patterns of themselves through the net of the creaky screen door -
    come to shake their heads, eyes deep-dark in agony of our betrayal

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  2. My goodness! I can hear my heart pounding in my ears! Such a strong poem!

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  3. For whom the bell tolls indeed; profound write

    Warm wishes this Sunday morn

    much love...

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  4. A real cry from the heart - powerful and urgent

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  5. Yes, some things must be confronted squarely and called what they are.

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  6. This is an interesting shaped poem, it reminds me of an army helmet and I think one is needed in this battle. On second glance it could be a bell to ring for the souls lost.

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  7. Oh may we cease, and grow thereto... enough is enough... let the bell chime

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  8. Yes, Pearl....a call to arms - not the shooting kind, the open, loving kind, to reverse this misinformed and misguided attempt to return to a dark place we have no wish to re-enter. We will resist at every turn.

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  9. Whoa! That was awesome but my advice is (if that was were a creative mind is)cool your jets. :) I always enjoy my visit here reading you.
    ZQ

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  10. How well you outline the foulness of humankind with the poem telling or should I say tolling the bell for our humanity in the way you shaped it.

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  11. This "racism reload" is back door swinging into a bad history, for sure. The bright bell of the poem tolls "listen,/learn/light,/fight/now." Why we have to go back to this fight? Is racism that rooted in the American soil and soul? Well, here we go. Amen.

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