Scars Last Forever
The last left chewing,
the first to spit fire,
melting down
foreign wordplay
to cackling
applause,
tears streaking
across
enemy minds,
tombstones and gravediggers
ready to rob
sharp-tongued dragons
of life by request:
old bones under dirt
remember wet faces
marked with destruction.
Colonial Experiment
Children sprint
through gardens
well-tended by elders,
making love
with all the pretty things
under glass domes
surrounded by
Old World
beliefs stamped
onto every inch
of every space
of every body.
See No Leader, Hear No Leader
A smile
bringing small gifts,
toys, actually,
invited me to play
inside a big house
with many new friends
and jokes,
but the gifts were only for me:
secrets that disappeared
once I was in,
distant memories,
weapons, really,
sitting in my closet corner
because that Revolution, that Dream
will never be the one,
already spoken.
America Sends the Beautiful
Grotesque monsters
invade this space:
again and again
I witness Gods
—too aware of His Story and
of their Selves in the Next World—
confront my grotesque comrades horrified,
fearful of piercing eyes,
gnashing teeth, flailing limbs
and perked ears, all tame,
ready to consume, process, and return
to the promised land.