My Lament - Shahara Godfrey

[Larry Robinson]

My Lament

This poem cannot waste a single word.

I am watching the world, 
my community
go slowly insane.
Due to my close proximity,
the
unraveling of my existence
loses its tentative hold.
Like an ache that walks alone,
my heart is homeless.

I am trying not to be afraid.

I need no reminders,
my people are dying.
Every time we reinvent ourselves,
someone else claims it.
We use vanishing cream
of
avoidance and denial
invisible to others
and
lost to ourselves.

I am trying no to be afraid.

Globalization is the new word
for
slavery, civilized bondage.
For the powers that be
their comfort
has been
bought with our suffering,
it ties us to the familiar places,
yoking us with the pleasures
or our own indifference,
a complacency
of self-appointed oppressors.

I am trying not to be afraid.

I suppose
what I really,
truly
want to do
is
love
tear by tear.

	- Shahara Godfrey