with lips that never
move but
you can plainly
hear them, and
they swear
the poor are
never
overlooked
and
all the
Spanish speaking
junkies are
cured.
The Wall
there
was a time in
history
that never
loved a wall,
the fear
that builds
it tall,
the gloom
it so pretends,
the weeping
on the other side
unheard by those
who sleep.
there
was a time in
history
that could not
tolerate the hand-made
bricks laid on quiet
earth
convening
mindless hate
that falls like
hail from the
darkest sky
to make compassion
bleed.
there
was a time in
history
that dared not
imagine
the border
snapped shut
by a president
who never groaned
with guilt for
God.
there
was a time in
history
that
rejected all
goose-stepping
dreams.
rejoice,
there
will be a time
when
heaven’s
trumpets will
sound
to tumble
the wall
and
the fool
of all these
thing.
Been Gone
spent a whole lot of years gone
from here, disappeared in a pale
world that never gave a welcome
mat to people like me, and out
of pure spite leveled point-blank
hate my way. walked in too many
places that turned from created human
beings that wanted to secure sinister
damnation for the brown skinned poor,
lowly, excluded, left out and fucked up.
knocked on a whole lot of doors never
opened, lived the innocent years pursued
by unmentionable fear, the relentless odor
of death, and condemning threats from a white
world with dark seeping in its heart. closed
my eyes with every step, lined up in a few
special places for bread, listened to the old
women on the block with shrinking spines
tell me don’t give up, and carried the kindness
of Julia, Sonia, Joseph, Rudy, Tito, Carmen,
Tony, Shorty and Lefty now become
names on a block wall. spent a whole lot of
years gone from here, never forgetting to
scream for the tiny bones we buried and
the people the world refuses to see that
are so sweetly mine!
Follow Me
if you would walk with me
down this wide street into
another world, the people who
know how to prowl in the darkness,
who speak outright in the daylight,
and take God with them, will greet
you with smiles bright like flames. you’ll
be surprised to know they have been
looking
