This (and others I will post) is not a new poem, but a slightly reworked one from years ago. In this covid cave experience, I have found myself looking back to old writings, old papers and books; finding peculiar citations and a multitude of highlighted passages i'd since forgotten about. I have also found several unfinished poems, perhaps waiting these years for me to find the right words. this one feels particularly relevant today.

Damage

They fear that I will figure out

That beautiful is not without

They pretend they do not see

That beautiful began with me

They tremble when I start to smile

Especially when it lasts a while

They like to think they’ve got me pegged

That I’m two-eyed and I’m two-legged

They want to see my amber feet

Resist arrest accept defeat

They ask me to align with them

Remove myself from where I’ve been

They take the gifts I never gave

Forget that I was once their slave

They say I overindulge my anger

That docile, I am less a stranger

They crave me when my lips are sealed

No hint of righteousness revealed

They run for safety when I rise

Leaving blood stains on my thighs

I rise alone most everyday

and blood stains can be washed away.

-qv

photo credit: Gagan Vishwakarma