‘Poetry’ Archives
POETRY: Kiziah’s Story, Part II
Read Part I here. By SHELIA BLAND To the other,The mother says only,“Yes, sir.” The mother and Kiziah go to the allotted area,Where the mother goes over the list of dutiesand the order in which they must occur—without passing on to Kiziah,the mother’s anxiety. The mother inspects Kiziah’s dressTo see that everything is perfectBefore she leaves thishouse of the othersto head home. The next day,the mother sets out for work. --What do you mean “the next day…”?What happened at the event?How did Kiziah do?What is to be the fateOf the mother and daughter? I cannot say.I was not there, you see.No one was.We are not guilty.The mother was not there.She is not guilty.She is responsible—We all are. You see, the mother assumedThe event ran lateAnd Kiziah was requiredTo stay the night. It’s a valid assumption.We have no control over the others.We are merely required to obey them.Kiziah would have had to do as she was told. That would be following [...]
POETRY: Kiziah’s Story
for Mom PART I/II By SHELIA BLAND We gave up a relativeTo the status quoNot voluntarily, of course --When you say “we” what do you mean, exactly? Well, I wasn’t there.No one was there really.We aren’t guilty in that sense. --Then what are we talking about? We are not guiltyNone the less, we are all responsible --All responsible? Yes, all responsible. --But no one can give testimony, becauseno one was there… We cannot give testimony, no.But we must bear witness… It was sometimeOne timeAnytime.In any case, it was a past event.Yesterday—Last year—Last century…. Yet, I can assure youIt happened. We were rule followersWe got alongWe got ahead This was trueYesterday—Last year—Last century. We were not of the one percentBarely of the ninety-nine percent—More like the zero percent.This was trueYesterday—Last year—Last century. We were the servantsWe were the sharecroppersWe were the enslaved We were the prep [...]
Pink-Jacketed Woman
By THOMAS R. SMITH No one could track all that was going on,but a pink-jacketed woman horrifically,dangerously close caught it on video.Alex Pretti beaten to the ground,shot in the back ten times in five secondsshe recorded through terror and confusion,and managed to escape without ICEseizing her phone. Helped by a womanwho gave her a different coat for cover,the “pink-jacketed woman” vanished,escaped to explode the regime’s lies.When I hear the word “cowardice” I thinkof muscle-bound, gun-toting thugs claimingself-defense against protesters with signsand whistles, and how Homeland Securityshields them from legal accountability.When I hear the word “heroism” I thinkof Stella Carlson, the “pink-jacketedwoman,” who absorbed the trauma up closeand with nothing but her braveryto shield her gave the whole world the truth. THOMAS R. SMITH is an American poet, essayist, teacher and editor. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals in the U.S. and [...]
