Monday, May 15, 2023

Tracy K. Smith

 Unrest in Baton Rouge 

  
           after the photo by Jonathan Bachman
  
Our bodies run with ink dark blood. 
Blood pools in the pavement’s seams. 
  
Is it strange to say love is a language 
Few practice, but all, or near all speak? 
  
Even the men in black armor, the ones 
Jangling handcuffs and keys, what else 
  
Are they so buffered against, if not love’s blade 
Sizing up the heart’s familiar meat? 
  
We watch and grieve. We sleep, stir, eat. 
Love: the heart sliced open, gutted, clean. 
  
Love: naked almost in the everlasting street, 
Skirt lifted by a different kind of breeze. 
  


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