Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Incantation

Incantation

this is the way we are in August 
in America in 2017
the nazis marching in Charlottesville
and the president standing silent
until he speaks for them

this is the way
we wait with anger and hope on street corners
holding signs and looking for signs
while our cellphone screens blister
with the news served too fast to eat
and civil war is in the air
again

this is the way
the enormity of the wound—
to the country,
to the invisible pertinent currents
coursing through our metaphysical bloodstreams,
to the ground shifting beneath us—
staggers mothers walking down streets, 
stuns birds from the skies,
and makes fathers stumble against walls

this is the way
the eclipse comes
in a rushing silhouette across America
as a sign or a symptom

this is the way
the shadow slides into our pockets

this is the way 
the dragon eats the sun
the way bear rears into the sky
and tears apart the light
the way demons bring darkness
and speak up for monsters

this is the way
we say to each other
we have reached totality

and this is the way
we look at one another
and remember the light

this is the way we wake up

this is the way we turn and find our way home

this is the way we remember ourselves


this is the way we begin again

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