after killings (despair rains fire)
burning for muscle and unbending bone
for a man
(not guilty enough / not innocent enough)
pressed into the ungiving road / by the ungiving knee
of a man
(guilty enough / to believe his own innocence)
despair beats on desert hearts / hearts so dry rain brings no change
/ no hidden garden of secret hope blooms /
while scorpions and snakes blink weak eyes / blind
which man asked please ? which man called mama?
which man said brother? Which man said I can’t breathe?
over and over and over and over again
despair rains / fire storms in angry hearts
people trying to explain / he’s not moving man /
not moving/
man
people taking pictures / taking names /
women walking up to burley men / skinny girls scolding
folks trying
to believe a man could not keep kneeling
on the neck of another
till death do us part / and all the other phrases
that float like ghosts in the mind suffocated by violence
despair rains
as fire catches everything / reminds us to feel
/ feel how quickly we are lost /
yes / even strong hearts / quickly lost
carefully now / which man was dead / which dying
answer this —
how will the dead care for all the ones still living /
let anger thunder into / fire
let the guilty curl away like spent ash /
in the heat of innocence /
STRONG HEARTS STILL LIVING
care / carefully / now
for all you love /
for all you hate /
yes /all /
also the hated / all
poem by Jo Mariner
Painting by Lesley Illingworth at www.lesleyillingworth.co.uk and painterlysketches.wordpress.com.
I’ve just listened to the last 4 poems and am SO pleased that I can listen to them straight away as I didn’t manage to before. You read them so well, Jo, it makes a big difference. This one is especially powerful. Thanks for writing it.
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