Poem from May 2022 Free Gen workshop

 

Aftermath

Post-Apocalypse could be like that book

the one about the Irish monastics

how out of cells they saved civilization

by chanting greetings to every hour

by alchemical means of brewing beer

by handcrafting illuminated texts

Inspired by their Rule, we could reset

assemble who remains into Orders

I’d be glad to do my monkish duty

praying the community’s breviary

weeding the community’s berry bed

baking the community’s daily bread

I’d volunteer to copy Little Women

put Jacob’s ladder in the inner margin

next to Beth’s death scene

she would be the uppermost angel

her left foot balanced on the highest rung 

right ready to take the next rungless step

(Inspired by the poem Reasons to Live Through the Apocalypse by Nikita Gill. Prompt shared by the editors of Backchannels Journal at the May 2022 Free Generative Writing Workshops)

Transformative Justice

 Talking In Circles

Folding chairs ring an altar offering

kente cloth, candles, fruits, photographs

Men shift through discomfort in silence, then

break through the ice between/in them

laying down layers of trust among them

These are the terms they agree to

This is the language they will speak

Integrity

Generosity

Vulnerability

Humility

Curiosity

Courage

Still, he will hesitate to unhide his heart

One trip around the circle –

Pass

Two trips –

Pass

Third time is a charm –

here is the harm he harbors:

Mom’s boyfriend’s fists

Fourth time around –

wet lines streak down cheeks

A friend. A bullet. An exit.

Fifth circle of Hell –

compassion was a luxury item

his turf didn’t allow to sprout

The sixth circling in on his story –

he wants off this stationary cycle

but to thrive he needs a revolution

(Inspired by the Garry Malachi Scott interview in Healing Justice - Documentary Film by World Trust and Shakti Butler)