They don’t hear
What I don’t say
They don’t see
What I conceal
They don’t know
What they miss
I don’t know
What they feel
Category Archives: Free Verse
Don’t What
In Silent Action
Leisurely relaxing –
The slow savoring
Of flavors. Sounds.
Moments and sensations.
Available at a rate
Unavailable to the low –
Pushed through politely,
Welcome. Get out.
So warmly repeated
In silent action.
The 93rd
The last order given
Followed, unflinching.
Though cannons fired
Though bullets bit
Though man after man
Was lost to the rain:
The 93rd stood
Til the next order came.
Easing a Road
Easing a road
By shielding a spark
For self, others, all
Closing a door to another,
Cruelly, coldly, and callously,
To open a door for yourself or simply
To amuse
Building a platform –
Making a mask –
By buffing rough edges smooth,
By raising high the low,
For fear. Perhaps,
For pride alone.
Shaping a shield
By redirecting the aim
To hide a sin – forever of long enough
To get away.
Protection or advantage
Entertainment or life,
For others. For self.
For wrong. For right.
A gradual gradient
Or black and white?
Willingly Await
Across the country they hide away
In huge ice boxes of drywall and paint:
A horde of leftovers that willingly await
A world of wandering giants.
Making a Nation
Founding Fathers
Merchants and farmers
Prisoners and protestants
Boatman and trailblazers
Fortune hunters and families
Plantations and slaves
Abolitionists and soldiers
Statesmen and sherriffs
Miners and railroadmen
Industrialists and unions
Newsmen and orphans
Suffragists and freed slaves
Scientists and snake oil salesmen
Socialists and socialites
Hollywood and haulers
Songwriters and slumlords
Innovators and excavators
Teachers and tax evaders
Engineers and Evangelicals
Policemen and prostitutes
Programmers and painters
Doctors and dancers
Criminals and creditors
Bankers and buskers
We build it together
Advance or retreat
Completely our nation
Yet never complete
A Dilemma of Hopes
Like a young child surrounded by brightly wrapped presents,
Visual promises of future glory, an excitement
Heightened by greed’s imagination –
A dilemma of hopes, of dreams –
When opening one means turning your back
On all those delicious possibilities
The First Day
The first day
Unnoticed
A season starting
Long overdone
A holiday anticipated
Months ago
A tradition
Lost
The Hostess
Everywhere at once,
Helping with a smile, a laugh,
Greeting each newcomer,
And passing from one conversation
To another, from friend to friend –
The heartbeat of the gathering,
Like a watchful fire tender,
Nursing the warmth to fire.
twytte 