another picker played

of Africa, of China,of Syria, of Israel,of France, of Italy….no more!citizens of the world!no longer can one countrymake it at the expenseof all others….the walls between us were lies,and they have fallen….now we are a peoplewhose homeland is family!there’s no other wayhumanity can survive!citizens of the world!

time and experience demand…aged like good whiskey,taken in sips, not gulps!hang like clouds at sunset,can burst into violent storms!make love to the soul long and slow,simmering o’er the fire.weep with sadness like slow rainin the night where no one can see….written in stone like an epitaph,an unmarked grave on a forgotten hill.howl in the darkness…

raises the gun to his head:‘God forgive me for what i do…’a cut off notice from the electric company,unopened on the table,an eviction notice hangingon the door…his son’s phone number by the phone,but the phone, like him,is dead!

the clown, the fool…the old man running the pawn shop,the teacher who tries but cant seem…the whore working her corner,the policeman walking his beat,the old woman shivering under her quilt,who cant pay for heat!the murderer, the dealer,the victim, the prisoner…the soldier come home to no home,the farmer whose farm foreclosed.i am the bow, the arrow,the…

they call poor black folks‘niggers’….they call poor Hispanic folksall kinds of names,‘illegal’ being the worst!labels…people who have too muchat the expense of the rest of us…well insulated ignorance…hatreds, that begin with hatredof the self!we’re not labels!we’re just folks….breathing, working, dreaming,trying, doing the best we can….we deserve the dignityof being treated as human beings….labels… hell no!i’m…

how many crosses carried,how many deserts crossed?how many tears must i cry(tho they be at night when no one can see) ,how many bruises, scars…how many times must i bleed?if I am not I,then whose breath this stranger?whose feet in my shoes?whose hat on my head?i stand in the moonlight,and look at the rafters,measuring rope…