melissaahowells - The Differences

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and so mere words

the tenderest of insincere platitudes

separate us from the beasts

(THEY REASONED)

how they circumvent the globe
scuttling and searching for lost prayer flags

SO SORRY says the barefooted man hanging alone
from the rafters

NOT LIKE ME  says the tired woman sitting resolutely
in her seat

RENEGADES AND SAVAGES say the ghosts whispering through the blades
of the buffalo grass that no longer grows on the lost plains

DEFY AND WE DIE says the Irishwoman clinging to her dead children
and pointing her bone-finger
at the black-potato of English parity

NO MORE UNDER THE BOOT
speak the eyes of the be-spectacled resolute man wearing swaddling pants
sitting in the un-quieted dust of India's trampled streets

WE SHALL OVERCOME sing the voices of a people facing snarling dogs
and poised hoses in the heated suffocation of the South

GIVE ME SHELTER weep the Mothers and Fathers separated forever
from their children in gulags near our southern borders

THE SLIGHTEST DIFFERENCE  cries the young boy blown high into the air
--surprised to be able to reach out and touch the face of Allah

DIFFERENCES --
HE SCREAMS AGAIN

THE BREADTH OF A SINGLE CAMEL HAIR

HUMANITY  it hissed as it breathed into the the pale pink lungs
of the fragile ones

AND THEN
THE SKY  BECAME RED AT MOURNING
AND CAME DOWN RUSHING IN TORRENTS
A MONSOON OF THE TEARS
OF ALL THE BEASTS AND BEINGS IN THE WORLD

AND THEN EARTH WAS OVERRUN BY THE FLOOD
UNTIL IT AND THEY
WERE NO MORE

WOE AND SO
THAT'S WHAT IT IS
ISN'T IT--
SPOKE GOD,
SADDENED AND ALTERED

THE DIFFERENCES.

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LEGAL COPYRIGHT FOR THIS POEM 3:15AM JUNE 17TH, 2020 TIME AND DATE STAMPED
AND FOR THIS WRITER MELISSA A HOWELLS
AND FOR THIS LEGALLY COPYRIGHTED AND REGISTERED SITE TITLE
MELOO STRAIGHT FROM HER TILT-A-WORLD