Good friends good poets
write poems
about injustice
independence
despair about this country
about what can happen next
but I for reasons I can’t
explain although I have spent
a lifetime trying to understand
how we all become who we are
parents history
the time of day we were born
babysitters when we were young
maybe that’s my own explanation
I loved my babysitter and I wrote
down what she said. Her name
was Eva Balco and I could listen to her
for hours talking about her husband
Jake. He worked at the factory
in town. I knew what he ate for breakfast
and dinner knew about Jake’s mother and father
he was an only child knew how they’d
met at the Catholic church
he didn’t go often but the day
he went Eva wore a cotton dress
with lilac flowers
and he said hello.
Because it is the 4th of July and I don’t write
independence poems, here’s the amazing speech
that Frederick Douglas gave on July 5. Apart from the pronouns
the speech is still what he need now.
https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2021/07/04/frederick-douglass-what-to-the-slave-is-the-fourth-of-july?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=YESDaily_20230704&utm_content=YESDaily_20230704+CID_f2656a71d6a408ce79a94e243637c467&utm_source=CM&utm_term=Read%20the%20story
such an interesting inquiry, esther. and i also often wonder why people write. how did we discover that in writing we somehow find that living in this world is almost manageable.
Extraordinary speech for all time, by an extraordinary man. Doesn’t cease to amaze. Thank you for sending.