the moment
when you crushed the slowest
growing stem

let's discuss
the prison system
that locks up
innocent children
behind economic fences
let's discuss their mothers
who are afraid
to open their front doors
or sit on their porches
let's wonder what child
won't come home today because
he walked into a bullet
just outside the corner store
let's discuss this internal
American war that denies
the basic needs and rights
of our most vulnerable and poor
let's discuss the segregation
that force feeds us rice and beans
and bullshit while privilege intentionally
clamor's for more than more
so blind and deaf and dumb
to personal accountability
that a bugle's death rattle declaration
sounds, "The sum of one and none is Trump."
to a crowded, frenzied, fanatical roar
ignoring the towers financed, built and repossessed
by THE GREAT AMERICAN HORROR

human bondage riding sidesaddle
down the middle of Main Street
on parade
on parole
handcuffed to the high collars
of judges and priests
you and me

watch her hands
give thirteen stitches to
a velvet inch

primitive devils
draping discarded sackcloth
on a childless moon

a blood soaked flag cut
from surrendering fabric
behind yer false teeth

a keen star
stoned by obscurity
dribbling ink
on dry land

sixty murders
on yer doorstep in
September

the
long
grief
of
love
that
lives
beyond
this
level
ground

her

you cannot
take this child from my breast
without a bullet

the thick chords
of a summer storm cinched
around my throat

thare's always
a cast iron skillet
on the stove

come home

niagara fell

i'll be damned
if rose won't rise up
from her death

shift yer gaze
not my face

no rest

man hoisted
up like a cold engine
in keeping chains

c.c. snagged a morphine man

please don't quit
she's held enough chilled skin
in her arms