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(compulsion strikes the witness)
By Louis Reyes Rivera
when evening
settles over the earth
to cover the scars
beneath
& slaves
unchained nurture the
sweat of blood
flowing grief
when hunger
cradles empty bellies
of babies
suffering in health
& mothers
wipe their dried-up
tears, cursing
this land of wealth
when hustlers
squeeze what they can
get from one
another’s prey
& rent
deployed absorbs the bet
of another
useless play
when fathers
turn their young aside
in search of
what they lost
& mothers
begin to count their
years in terms
of gain & cost
when preachers
con sane folk blind
while whores
pursue the dead
for pimps whose
only bargain lies
resurrected in a
bed
it is then
compulsion strikes
the witness as a
form
of letting loose
his bitter screams
through a loud
abrasive storm
when night
creeps in & suns are
seen &
slaves feel free despite
their strangled
way of roaming
in search of
forced delight
when alleys hide
the plotted
course of those
who watch and wait
to take from one
who starves
himself, still
banking payments late
when drunks sit
close to barmaids
to share their
hopes & tales
of what they
could or might have
done, but for
those key betrayals
when warriors
return with battled
scars to find
their place again
& graves
rest cold on fields made
bare, cleansed
in snow and rain
it is then those
screams grow louder
as the witness
compulsion strikes
to stand against
the way things
are or run in
endless flights
when morning
lures the night
away & forms
begin to rise
to face the
chore of another
day filled with
no surprise
when workers
bustle at their jobs
to charm their
master’s ease
in turn in hope
of getting more
in turn ignored
or teased
when growing
minds are wasted
trickled &
misinformed
of what they can
& cannot know,
when lies become
the norm
when cops &
post & milkmen
find pleasure on
their beat
& children
reject this stranger’s
warmth,
screaming it into defeat
when bodies bend
against a wall
failing to
straighten one head
escaping from
the prison
of mindless
daylight dread
compulsion
strikes the witness
to search among
his own
to link with
those whose only
want is shackles overthrown.
Source: Scattered
Scripture: Reaching,
Claiming, Lunging for the Universe of Things (1996)
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