Saturday, July 11, 2020

Lake Henry July 11, 2020

album

Friday, July 10, 2020

lingering afterlife

If you saw the black and white photograph 
You might think it could be Ernest Hemingway 
Standing there being posed holding the big fish
Bundled in a parka against the cold snow and ice.

Twelve years since my friend David died
Three years since that photo appeared 
Beside a remembrance another friend wrote
Published in the 50th reunion compendium. 

As a dear friend Rosie once explained
Not long before she died this year
The dead exist in a kind of lingering afterlife 
In the memories of those who knew them.

The David I remember would surely laugh
Seeing that photo of himself like the way he laughed 
Reading aloud Brautigan’s Trout Fishing In America 
Mocking the manly Hemingway having sex with a fish.

For me the words of praise for David filling that page 
Beside the bemused expression I see in the photo 
Left out the essence of the person I loved to be with 
The one I knew not yet forgotten to me

The one with the melodious good natured chuckle
The one who dared to speak from the heart 
The one who had no truck with pretense
The one who stayed true to his roots in Flint.

The one who gave me encouragement for my writing 
The one who introduced me to Black jazz musicians
The one who opened my world up to new possibilities 
Though I never quite understood his meaning 

As he read his poem almost shouting the final words
"If the shoe fits, WALK!"
Until many years later more subdued 
Having lived through his losses and disappointment 

The divorce late in life of his parents 
The suicide of his mother afterwards 
The disillusionment with his older brother 
The friend who failed him in his time of need.

All that weighed on him in such a human way
As he took a sober inventory of his life
Never wavering from trying to do the right thing 
Being a good and generous person

Running a small bookstore with his adored Liz
Putting out boxes of free books for the community 
Forever enjoying reciting his favorite Jack Spicer
"The sounding brass of my heart says 'love'."

Monday, July 6, 2020

Lake Henry July 6, 2020

album

Sunday, July 5, 2020

declaration

People who were born into slavery 
Were still alive when I was born 
Not so very long ago
Not so far removed from current events. 

Native Americans with treaty rights to their land
Belonging to them by right in the first place 
Stolen even more recently 
Forced onto reservations to live in poverty. 

Abolition remains unfinished business 
Reparations yet another broken promise 
Slavery reconstructed through imprisonment 
Democracy deconstructed through disenfranchisement.

The way things are today has not changed really
The systemic racism behind the professed ideals
The ongoing history of genocide and betrayal 
White man speaks with forked tongue. 

Japanese immigrants sent to concentration camps 
Yesterday's news overtaken by the latest outrage 
Latinx immigrant children separated from their parents 
Placed in cages like dangerous animals. 

On the Fourth of July I do not celebrate 
Living in a place where freedom does not ring
Where people of color live in fear
There can be no truth and reconciliation possible.