They chopped down a forest
to burn me from their throats,
but innocence argues escape.
Double trouble your world’s in rubble.
I only hid behind your teeth until
the flame spoke my name.
Today’s a dagger…Tomorrow a lock.
You drank white robed from a bigot’s cup
forgetting poison carries the stench of its roots.
©Susie Clevenger 2017
Hell is empty and all the devils are here, it seems..this is disturbing on a profound level--as if we watch(as indeed we do) two thousand years of civilization retreating like a tide, till all that's left is a clutch of apes in a jungle, bashing each other with clubs and worshiping a stone. I love the point your poem makes, that this voice of dissent, of individuality and freedom, lives as well in the persecutor's own throat, and by denying its validity, by destroying it, he himself is poisoned by it.Or so I read. And what a blood-curdling clip--scarier than any manufactured monster is Man himself. Thanks for this burning spear of a poem, Susie.
ReplyDeleteI think I am so determined to speak the darkness of man as well as the light because for many years fear robbed me of my voice. The clip is so frightening, more so because it it too real.
DeleteWhy you wanna scare me, Susie Clevenger? Aren't the weekend news shows scary enough? This is pretty terrifying and full of a burning sense of karma.
ReplyDeleteToday's truth is layers of hell flooding through a media throat daily. Karma is busy these days.
DeleteSpectacular. The monster in the white robe, drinking from a bigot's cup.....you nailed our current reality.
ReplyDeleteI wish it was merely haunting fiction. Truth has bared teeth these days.
DeleteMan oh man all of it seems far too possible for comfort.
ReplyDeleteWe are on a scary ride of rewind. I keep trying to pull the brakes.
DeleteSusie, I’ve tried but I CANNOT watch this show. Stings something terrible. Your words are bitter as truth here
ReplyDeleteThe show is definitely hard to watch. I have read Margaret Attwood can't watch it either. I wish there was more cotton candy truth flashing across our screens.
Deletei believe the powers at work against freedom know that fear breeds silence, and silence functions as consent. so it's that much more vital to keep speaking, even thru the fear.
ReplyDeleteSo true... We have to speak up.
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