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Off
Good music on the radio
Ray Charles, James Brown
Sam Cooke
When Love Comes to Town

I'm an amateur poet
Not a man of much renown
Off
Off like a prom gown
Money may not
grow on trees
But far too many people
are willing to go
out on a limb for it
~
Precious Padma
You dearest aquatic flower
You grew in murky waters
Unblemished by its impurity
But come they did
To ****** your petals
And leave you a burning stem
Never can they take from you
The spirit of your plainsong
It continues to grow in your sisters
And in a time and season so near
They will sing your hymn
As one substantial voice
The changing winds will then
Lift it higher

~
On Thursday, December 5, 2019, a 23-year-old **** victim from Unnao, India was seized by five men, including the two people she had named in her previous complaint to the police, and beaten, stabbed and set on fire. Still ablaze, she walked nearly a mile, seeking help before finally calling the police herself. She later died in a New Delhi hospital, prompting protests of violence against women.
The ham sandwiches
You had as as a child at them funerals
Will never be beaten
Yes I know that seems crueler
Than the nature o what makes
You seems holier
Than the Pope his self.
here my lexicon shimmers
like a mirage of flecks upon
the window of a reversing car:
so not getting run over requires
the elegance n intelligence to glean
what really makes a poem irrelevant!
when you read my oh-so virtuoso prose
let my lack of substance turn up your nose;
your letters get longer but paper gets thinner
some nonsense on nonsense?
Everything’s a factory
An industry
Aligning me
With fall in line
Assembly lining
Genocide
Is fine with me
It’s fuel to feed the fire
It’s the viewer
It’s the buyer
It’s the rule to heed
The necessary
Evil
The empire
In the shade of the crescent moon,
A silvery-silken veil wears a face,
Celestial spirits run from the crematories
And gathered in one place;
The spirits died of treason
Unrolled their boxes of grief,
And wail at the end of the season;
They have been sleeping for years
Surely more than a hibernating bear,
They do not sound friendly,
As revengeful and rageful they appear;
But the holy light of Indian basil
Keeps them apart,
And so I light a lamp every day
And from my gate, the spirits depart.
casts huge leaf shadows on dirt
and the mockingbird's mocking me.

"mockingbird,"
I put my hands in my pocket
and pretend a smile,
"some things you can't out run,
church bells and a wedding dress,
funeral processions and baptisms,
the cop car radio,

she was so beautiful in her wedding dress,"

I'm pointing my finger up at the mockingbird,
"so I'm a few steps ahead of you in heartache,

it was a toss of the dice,"I tell the bird,

"I threw a handful of rice."

"so don't look sad at me, bird.
everyone gets hurt."

and on her branch in the sycamore tree
the mockingbird's crying to me...

"I'm a few years ahead you...
Sweet One, lonely bird.

I've walked through fire,
stared into the wall of shadow and sorrow
into the cold silence of tomorrow.

I hear what you're telling me, Dear One,
loves been a little ******* you, too,

and there in illusion lies the danger
so please be kind, my friend,

the sorrows that never seem to fade away
become the grey, dark sea,
and sunlight through the Sycamore tree.
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