NEGLECT

By Laura Ivers

Daddy what is a dream?

A dream?

A dream is nothing

but a balloon drifting on a string.

If you let it go,

it will float far away from sight.

Daddy what is a song?

A song?

A song is nothing

but notes spiraling though the air.

If you walk far enough away,

it will cease to be heard.

Daddy what is a voice?

A voice?

A voice is nothing

but a cry whimpering in the night

If you ignore it long enough,

it will settle down and die.

*   *   *   *   *

I  used my poetry to handle memories that were surfacing from my childhood.  At this time I started reading the poetry of Langston Hughes . . . and then everything just sort of fell into place. The abuse which took place in my family seemed to mirror our racist society at large and so I began to play with these themes within my writing.  I wanted to unveil the hidden structures that runs throughout the three sisters of oppression:  Racism,  Sexism, and Classism.

I sought to unveil not out of a sense of revenge, but rather as a call to action . . . to heal over this dreadful past.  While I was doing my healing work, racism got hooked up in my mind as the perpetrator.  It felt like it was literally raping my soul.  And then there was the coming to terms with my own Whiteness . . . for what my culture had done.  Writing these poems was the only way that I knew how to ask for forgiveness; and it was the only way that I knew how to effectively express my sense of outrage.

Poetry became my balm of salvation, my experience of Amazing Grace.