A little poetry here, a little poetry there...
Game Day
The smell of buttery popped corn floats in the air. Like a hive of bees, a soft, exhilarating buzz fills the air, the hardwood sparkles, the game ball, shiny and new, anxiously waits. A perfect storm brews, adrenaline and nerves, swirl and mix players don the green and black, the uniform they labored for. They step on the court, ready to fight, to sacrifice, to bleed for one another, for themselves, for the game… “Preparation, meet opportunity,” It’s game day. |
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A Mile
If I walked a mile in their shoes, I would have been ripped from my homeland, torn from my roots, the drums silent, bound in iron, forsaken. If I walked a mile in their shoes, my feet would be bare, calloused and scarred they would have traversed cane fields and coffee orchards, the chattel of a plantation owner. If I walked a mile in their shoes, I would know revolt and freedom emancipation from colonial masters replaced with a slave master of my own blood. If I walked a mile in their shoes, I would guard my words, my thoughts, my contempt I would know fear, foreboding and cancerous fear of a real boogeyman like Tonton Macoute. If I walked a mile in their shoes, I would watch my baby, the lifeless body of my womb, lie among the broken and the alone a carpet of death blanketed over the nation. I haven't walked a mile in their shoes, Although, I have walked where they have walked in my flip flops and souvenir t-shirt, my vacationer's nonchalance haggling over a few dollars for a folk painting, a mahogany bowl, a fertility idol. I haven't walked a mile in their shoes, instead I lie in my bed, incubated, listening to the furnace hum... my body nourished, my children safe, ruminating on the iniquity between my shoes and theirs. From the Wraparound Porch The white-throated sparrows rest on spindly branches, swapping stories and gossiping, "Do you see the breast on that meadowlark!" Then, as if short on time, with frenzied goodbyes, they make a speedy exit until tomorrow at dawn. Spring Equinox parade of wings teetering colts whinny feathery tides of green golden teacups swaying Heart Disease It was slow and steady. not the break-up itself, no, that was abrupt, almost perverse in its speed. Ten years decimated in 90 days. The deterioration of the marriage, that was slow, like plaque depositing on artery walls. Breeding disease, creating obstructions, narrowing the pathways, until one day, the hearts just stopped beating. |
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