desiree
the storm has torn loose a shutter
and let the blind loot of night in

We feel it quiet against the wall
like a dream merging
the spine of seasons
ruffling vintage tests

the rain pressing questions
outside
each pearl lucent kiss
she loves me
she loves him not

breathe alive a hesitant
rush my spirit pulls on
rusty rails the steam
horse driver wheels

lean beneath the dark
the slick wear of water
against a trick of light

this new knowing
growing

I met a fellow in my travels
who spent his life, alone.
He thought, at first 'twas his good fortune
sharing not, what he did own.

Through an endless string of days, and nights
where he never thought to share,
his heart became so hardened
he lost his ability to care!

As my life continued on I found
a man with a different fate,
his list was long of current charities
giving him, yet another trait.

with bandaged loin
shuffling step
before his twenty-fifth birthday
and long before I was born
he returned from
The Great War

she told me
‘doctors made cuts in the webs of his toes’
and, while he screamed his torment
she would pull them apart
until water turned to blood

she told me
at each and every beginning of day
for three long years
he wailed in a flood of
agony and despair
as she slowly drained
the toxins from his body
because his kidneys no longer did

It was in their very interest first
To scramble and partition the land
Stretching transversely the whole continent
For global economic adventures
In free and independent Africa

Our land of great ancestral heritage;
They all came in flocks of thousands to feed
Like lean vultures and other scavengers
The wolves disguised as sheep, harmless they seemed
Bearing the Lord’s Holy Grail with closed hands