How Could You Not Know?

How could you not know? about

prisons, when we’ve met behind the bars of several,

brought books in, and denied that mere walls

should enslave us..?

Dear, I saw the covering over your head, the stain

of inherited guilt seeping through the cloth.

Love, I once saw the light falling flat

on your shoulders, your eyes weeping against the glare.

Friend, I heard how you dropped to the Post Office

steps, dying right on them, a heart attack,

no one helped.

Our elder author, lady with

the lilt still when she reads, she says poetry

will save the world. I have my doubts.  But

hope.  As you hope also.

So how can you not see that the pettiness

of blind ego drags us to a page of broken prose,

tramples the beautiful words into bitterness.

Come, be a safeguard now, frisk me, making sure

I carry no arms.  Sit with me here

and we shall write lines so diaphanous and proud

they’ll hold the very air in place.