Four Shots of Shame with Deliverance Chaser
Some days…
I am ashamed to be
a man…
after listening
to long
horrid
tales
of
abductions,
evil that
would make
Satan blush,
incest
and
mindless
bruised
broke
bone
backhand
violence
(Hospital
Polaroids
of women
bruised
toward
disfigurement
disability
death.)
Some days…
I am ashamed to be
white…
the
deadly
bloody
litany
is long
and
well
documented
(Smiling white
faces
professionally
photographed
around
the lynched
nigger.)
Some days…
I am ashamed to be
American
the holier
than all
morality
and
the arrogant
global
big stick
bully
role
(The
corpse piles,
shattered
lives
and
horror
flashbacks
of
Korea
and
Vietnam.)
Some days…
I am ashamed to be
human…
as I watch
the earth
bow
bend
and falter
beneath
our
multiplying,
poisonous
feet
(Two headed,
three
legged frogs
are not
what Darwin
had in mind.)
Some days…
I am amazed
at the
simple,
improbable
glory
of
witnessing
one more sun
crest and
birth
east of
Montauk
and
having the
gift of words
to
encompass
evil
and
beauty