MY ABSENT PRESENCE
People will weep.
Maybe they’ll pray.
They’ll likely say
nice things – Oh, Christ!
–When I met them.
–Where we took care.
–How I look now.
Then all my friends
will become still
as our whole past
binds up their minds
and that’s my brand.
ANOTHER YEAR ENDING
The geese are gone.
Another winter’s coming on,
and then a sound sleep
before we wake and leap.
Another year’s ending,
and then a new beginning.
Because life needs a frame
every year’s the same.
DUCK TAPE AND CHICKEN WIRE
A man can fix any part
with duck tape and chicken wire
except for a broken heart
and a field of wheat on fire.
The crop will grow back again
but the heart will never mend.
TONY
My first dog taught me justice,
mercy, and forgiveness.
When I pulled Tony’s tail
he bit me without fail,
and then he’d lick my face.
And thus I learned ‘bout grace.
God gave a dog to Adam
both as consolation
and as compensation
for the loss of Eden.
773౺
I’m upside down in Hell deeper than a dry well.
Oh, but why am I here with crooked financiers,
blasphemers, murderers, thieves, and adulterers?
The Devil came to me and he grinned wickedly.
“You’re here because you failed to live a life unveiled.
You had your mortal faults and kept them in your heart
instead of admitting, instead of correcting.
You, no self-inventor, just let your failings foster.
You never tried to move, get better, or improve.
If you’d been more driven, now you’d be in Heaven.”
And then I woke in sweats,
aware of mortal debts.
EXACTLY!
Eggs white, eggs brown.
The yolk is the same,
exactly the same.
Albumen’s the same,
exactly the same.
White ones, brown ones,
their soul is the same.
“Eggs white, eggs brown/The yolk is the same…” is exactly right! When it comes to the grand lie and illusion of human differentiability due to pseudo “scientific” theories of eugenics and polygenesis [read more in my book Chain Letter To America: The One Thing You Can Do To End Racism] also known as “scientific racism”. We ALL need to be reminded that we are ALL from the same HOMINIDS family with 99.9% genetic proclivity….
For in the eloquent and astute words of famed “black” author Toni Morrison:
“If I take your race away, and there you are, all strung out. And all you got is your little self, and what is that? What are you without racism? Are you any good? Are you still strong? Are you still smart? Do you still like yourself? … If you can only be tall because somebody is on their knees, then you have a serious problem. And my feeling is that white people have a very, very serious problem, and they should start thinking about what they can do about it. Take me out of it.”-Jacques Fleury, author of “Chain Letter To America: The One Thing You Can Do To End Racism”
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“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr