April is National Poetry Month and a friend gave me a prompt. Dichotomy. Today being the anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, the birthday of Dr. Maya Angelou, as well as the tragedy of what happened in Syria – my mood wasn’t cheerful. But here you go.
i close my eyes and let my hands
run across the keyboard
i sit in silence and wait for
the words to come
i wait for the door in my mind
to swing open
and the words to tumble forth
the way a river runs
i listen to the sound of the air conditioner
with my feet tucked underneath me at my chair
i feel the body heat of my beloved
pet right beside me
and am comforted by my lover
sleeping near…….
……today I mourned the deaths in Syria
what a heart wrenching scene I watched the bodies and cried
with a prayer stuttering at the back of my teeth
I realized also today was the day Dr. Martin Luther King died
Someone asked me to write a poem about dichotomy
about the great gulf fixed between two different things
and tonight I can’t help but think of the state of the world
between what is now and what we used to call, humanity
It used to be that neighbor watched out for neighbor
that children were raised by the mothers up and down our city streets
now we’re cutting off healthcare, welfare, funding for the arts
calling it Justice – when old folks don’t have nearly enough to eat
Our presidents in times past never took office with malicious intent
at least Andrew Jackson believed he was doing the right thing
but now terror stalks our houses of government
with old enemies our grandparents all fought against
Where neighbors once stood shoulder to shoulder to shoulder
now we let young black men get gunned down with cell phones capturing the scene
and that young Spanish girl who lives down the block – yeah
her daddy and her mother – the breadwinners of the family – won’t be here next spring
Something’s run sour and bitter and brittle and cruel in our midst
something stinks to high heaven where milk and honey once flowed
someone’s left the barn open for the wolves to come feast
and it happened because the children of the greatest generation’s ignorance – thought liberty – as a concept – was getting too old.
So if you wanted a poem about dichotomy – here it is
and one more thing before I let you leave this place
the world was once destroyed by contrasts but none so malignant
as the idea of superiority inherent in the anglo-white race.