CATHY WARNER
  • Home
  • About
  • My Writing
  • Annas Bay Books
  • Hood Canal Beauty
  • Photo Haikus
  • Blog
  • Services
  • Classes & Events

A Poem Because Cities Are Burning and I Can’t Sleep

6/1/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Midnight May 31, 2020
 
If a poem could keep
the world from exploding,
other lives from imploding
I’d never put down my pen.
I’d ink blank pages
until fingers cramped, blistered,
and bled, until the marks
of artistic suffering smeared
the alphabet of good intentions.
 
I’d write until compelled
to stop and look upon
the streaked mess
I’d made of creation.
Forced to cease
my frenetic struggle
for self-expression
I’d rub a tired hand
across my neck
and just breathe in and out
because I can
live in the present moment.
 
I’d see tears of privilege
smear my careful pages
forming corona bursts
that spread like wildfire
consuming poetic constructs.
 
Ink seeping into blood
bleeding into grief that overflows
its banks surging with despair
flooding foundations
that were supposed to protect
our fragility but crumble
under the weight of oppression.
Exposing the rotten materials
upon which we’ve built
systems that promise
to uphold everyone
but never could
support the weight of equality
and that fail all of us now
as illusions of protection
and safety collapse.
 
The walls tumble down
and we are broken, shattered
scattered along the streets
cowering in quarantined homes
victims of an unseen virus,
supremacy, and privilege.
Barely masked vitriol
is such flimsy covering
against what we truly need to face.
 
I should be standing
alongside those destroyed
by the shadow side
we once tried to hide
but are now parading and tweeting.
Our naked underbelly celebrated
our worst selves shined up
our deepest fears inflicted
upon others we dehumanize
in order to keep our motives
unexamined our wounds unhealed.
 
My voice is so easily spoken
my words so easily heard
my views so easily accepted
my pen so easily plied.
But you who’ve been silenced
you who’ve been ignored
you who’ve been shunned--
protest. Riot if you must.
Burn your truth into my skin
and may your cries
haunt me to the grave.
0 Comments
    Picture
    I began blogging about "This or Something Better" in 2011 when my husband and I were discerning what came next in our lives, which turned out to be relocating to Puget Sound from our Native California. My older posts can be found here.

    Archives

    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    February 2022
    November 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016

    Newsletters

    • Astronomical Wonders 09/22 
    • Finding Sustenance in this Season 03/22
    • Happy Holidays 12/21
    • Treats Not Tricks 10/21
    • Here in the Ember Months 09/21
    • Sizzling Summer Sights & Sounds 07/21
    • Memorial Day Update 05/21
    • Holy Week 03/21
    • March Madness 03/21
    • Solstice Greetings 12/20
    • The Gratitude Issue 11/20
    • Autumn Is Upon Us 09/20
    • Summer Sightings 07/20
    • What to do with this pain 05/20
    • New Anthology 05/20
    • Easter Edition 04/20
    • Sequestered Sunday 03/20
    • Keep Calm & Cloister On 03/20
    • February Feasting 02/20
    • Cathy's Autumn Update 11/19
    • Settle in to September 09/19
    • Coming Up! 08/19
    • A New Memoir in the Family 07/19
    • California Here I Come 06/19
    • Sky's the Limit 04/19
    • Spring Update 03/19
    • New Book 02/19
    • Fabulous February Literary Update 02/19
    • New Year News Letter 01/19
    • Winter Writing Update 12/18 

  • Home
  • About
  • My Writing
  • Annas Bay Books
  • Hood Canal Beauty
  • Photo Haikus
  • Blog
  • Services
  • Classes & Events