AS WE WAIT
as we wait in Auschwitz
as we wait in Kosovo
kindness can’t be explained with chemistry
or diagrams
or even logic
kindness is more than reaching
more than loving
kindness is sometimes the only flower
in a field of weeds
as we wait in Auschwitz
as we wait in Kosovo
***
UNTITLED
I reach inside and I twist
my heart out of my chest and I
hold it in my hands.
It is beating for you
rumba rumba baby baby
rumba rumba
can you hear my heart
I can feel it beating for those children of war
who did nothing
to earn
a look at the blood in the street
who did nothing
to learn
of the sound of gunfire in the night.
rumba rumba baby baby
rumba rumba
for the soldiers who said I’ll go
and went
and found not what they were seeking
only the
gunfire in the street
and the children
***
To Heal
I want to say that
I am sorry
but
it is not enough to be sorry
it is not enough to cry
it is not enough to get even
or even to try to turn the other cheek.
The refugees gather at the border
“Their lives matter too”
It is enough to become quiet
in the silence of the crowd
it is enough to honor with silence
the dead and the living
it is enough to love again
and to feed the hungry ones
in silence
we cannot heal wih revenge
we must heal this wound
in our hearts
we bleed in silence
our tears fall into the rubble
but the fires still burn
***
from David Michael Jackson
“My dad died of Leukemia in 1960. I was 12 years old.
Because of a news report I wrote this poem”
THE NEWS
they say that a pill
could cure my dad
40 years
too
late
and I cry
tears
of
joy
true
joy
rejoice!
***
Spelling Correction
to come back
and write a poem
again
to make a come back
and write again
or
paint
that’s the question
waiting
for an answer
waiting
for the sunrise or
waiting
for the
sunset
***
SELF
So I said to myself
Self
Where is this leading
this living
this being
where is this leading I asked in a moment
of weakness
in a moment of pure futility
maybe the only pure thing I’ve
ever
known
as pure and as cold as the
mountain stream this futility
and I have made me a home in it
a warm home with a
fire
where I can burn my moments
and watch the smoke rise up from them
to heaven.
***