They lie warm together
In the afterglow of torrid love
Her head on his chest, he says
"Sing me to sleep, my love"
So she hums and croons
A tune he does not recognize
With soothing sounding words
In a language he does not recognize
"I love you," he murmurs as his eyes close
"I know," she says smiling
And so, as he sleeps
She lies open-eyed
Imagining a future he will not recognize

                                        By Phil Roberts

oh ****.
i just had
another thought.

when kaepernick
kneels
to express
distress at his
country's
injustices
against
minorities,
(and for christ's sake
if you believe
there is no injustice
then i don't know
what to say to you)
in a quiet,
legal,
non-violent
expression,
a demand
for unity,
equality,

he is booed.
made fun of.
called
a traitor.
entitled.
disrespectful.
unpatriotic.

everyone loses
their godforsaken
minds
because a black
man
with money
kneeled.

for ****'s sake, people
wake the
**** up.

you know
what's disrespectful?

violence.
inciting violence.

you know
what's unpatriotic?
denigrating
entire groups
of human
beings.

entitled?
if equality is
special treatment
then i guess so.

i'm bout ready
to take the
******* knee
myself,

seeing the
rampant,
jovial
racism,
sexism,
classism.

the absolute
pride
people in
my country
are taking
in marginalizing,
dehumanizing,
belittling,
assaulting.

it's disgusting.

without a doubt
i will take
the *******
knee.

If our bodies
Were only made
Of floating heads
I sure as hell
Wouldn't have survived

My head
Would have blown up
In a thousand pieces
Because of
The millions of thoughts
It couldn't contain

I've never moved ink like this,
and like ink is
surprised by the
sudden shift,
           so am I
surprised by how
I've never been swayed like this
either

You'd think a poet-dancer-painter-joiedelavie-creator
would have felt the
  move of
everything and
  never missed a
cue or crossed-T
but

there are ways I'm finding
to push the pen that I
haven't tried
before
and
I am
being
moved as
well, in ways my
spindly bones did not know
that they could bend,
before

like growing the fruit at the
end of a
branch, I'm learning to
  balance
           the
          weight