Blessed Be the Heroes

Muhammad Ali is a Muslim
     --a hero in a bipolar world.
Afghanistan pushes for peace with the Taliban
     --the Pentagon sells weapons to Saudi Arabia.
Ginnie asks Anita to apologize
     --a teabagger's olive branch to a feminist.
Reports of economic recovery
     --banks step-up foreclosures.
"Don't ask, don't tell" reprieved
     --it's an election year.
Elton and Leon reunite
     --blessed be the heroes in a bipolar world.

leh

Bad blood rising

Ominous signs

     before the dust cloud settles
          in Berkeley
               left protests, nothing new

     after the dust cloud settles
          at Ground Zero
               right protests, something new

Zealotry begets

     polarization

          genocide

       Solomon's wisdom ... or not

Sacrificial lambs
     not an inconsequential act

       All this, and Pluto II


leh

Alone Together

Naill & Blackwood
on a dog-day quest for fathers unknown
our Golden Eagle soaring along Route 66
attracting attention unwanted.

Disjointed memories

colliding with no rhyme

bypassed the Grand Canyon

nonstop through Navajo land

the Texas panhandle

far horizon country, past
cylindrical bales of gold spun
under a flaxen Oklahoma sun.

Aunt Opal in Carnegie
distant Kiowa powwow, that night
drumming a twister warning.
shelter in Anadarko
Gladys’ cellar fit all
telling lore of bygone family
history to help her belong.
not always right; not always wrong.

Onward to Arkansas
a diamond in the rough
through Cherokee hills
red dust & Ozark sweat.
Uncle Max on a tractor
his last summer tilling earth.
Dad, out back culling greens
only four summers more to reap.

No matter Nashville
detoured south to Broken Bow
undeterred by Choctaw thunderheads
sleuthed among soggy headstones
—none that Blackwood sought.


~text & photo by leh

Dateline: Rosewood

Dateline: Rosewood
1923 New Year's Day

A bloody, bruised
white woman
stumbled from her home
in Sumner, Florida
claiming assault by a
negro man

                    1945 Auschwitz

Under an ashen sky
white men gathered
bloodhounds, guns, whiskey
and went after him

                    1955 Mayflower, Texas
        Rosa Parks arrested
        for refusing to give up
        her bus seat to a white man

By the time it ended
seven people died
unknown dozens of blacks
driven from their homes
into neighboring swamps

                    1968 Montgomery, Alabama
        Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
        assassinated

A once thriving
black community
called Rosewood
burned to the ground

                    1995 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
        White supremacist Timothy McVeigh
        bombs federal building

Satisfied
as if they'd simply
eaten a hearty meal
the upstanding citizens
of Sumner, Florida
staggered home
for a good night's sleep

                    1998 Laramie, Wyoming
        Matthew Shepard beaten to death
        for being homosexual

In the smoldering rubble
that used to be
Rosewood
the incessant ping of rain
echoed off tin roofs

                    2010 Brotherhood of Klans'
                    response to immigration:
        “The racial war is among us.

        It is time to fight.”


Who's next?

photo & text by leh

Refraction

bending of light as it passes between
materials of different optical density

our collective stories pass

from one generation to another

truth bending, curving

refracting through time

memory of our origin fading

evolving into myriad tales of creation

text by leh; photo by Dixie Lewis

Saturn Opposite Neptune

Saturn's boundaries are Neptune's enemies...

saying nothing because you don't feel safe

holding your breath so you don't hear your heartbeat

not letting him see you cry as he disappears into illusion

just one more look...no, remember your boundaries

Phew, Saturn wipes his brow, that was close!

If only she'd let him in, muses Neptune.

Why? Sooner or later, he'd still break her heart.

Not necessarily my cynical friend, not if she had faith.

You've been eating too many brownies!

Haven't you heard that chocolate is an aphrodisiac?

I give up, sighs Saturn, you're hopeless.

To the contrary, replies Neptune, I am hope.

leh