Still Burning (poem) by Danae Wilkin on AuthorsDen

Still Burning
by Danae Wilkin → (All Poetry by Danae Wilkin)
Wednesday, June 10, 2020 Rated "PG13" by the Author.

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A feeling, not a knowing, for how can I?

How you burn my flesh to boils How you bludgeon my dreams How you curse my black skin How you gut me Over and over again As you drink your clear liquor With ice cubes and mint And you laugh at the feckless As if fault were to blame How you bore upon me The whip crack of generations As you lapped up my sweat-wealth And claimed it your own Now you send your dogs Once to hunt our escape Now to drown my friends In the swamp you call law A mockery of justice That would murder us all Take care, you say Take care How do I When no one cares? You think you understand But you don’t. One protest doesn’t qualify you One death doesn’t deify you You’ve started Though far too late How many bodies did it take? Are you awake? Are you sure? Will next month’s blue murder Bring you out again? Maybe you’ll return to the office Maybe Billy will go to school We will still be fatherless And life will turn its back And you were so sure That this would end it all How can it? We are what we are Predator and prey Many flames, one fire The hyena licks its chops The story goes on and on.

Reviewed by Ronald Hull

Reviewed on June 13, 2020

So poignantly you have reached into the depths of the thoughts someone oppressed, going all the way back the cruel and desperate lives in slavery. People bartered as property. Still treated badly for no other reason.

Kudos on this one. Very few poems strike you in the gut like this one does.

Ron

Reviewed by Budd Nelson

Reviewed on June 12, 2020

a fine and timely piece
budd

Reviewed by Lark Pogue

Reviewed on June 11, 2020

One word EXCELLENT

Reviewed by John Herlihy

Reviewed on June 10, 2020

"Take care, you say
Take care
How do I
when no one cares?"

So eloquent. Fine poem, from depths drawn.

Reviewed by Odin odin@aflx.com

If only more of the populace could perceive the crisis as two-sided, as you have, that hate, like the virus, knows not who to attack, for as you so eloquently point out, hate is a pervasive dis-ease of the heart and mind, and again, like the covid 19, is a pandemic of social affliction. Yes, just how might it be to have these feelings of despair and hope that this be the moment in history when the powers that be will convert such feelings into the kind of action that could change the course of history. If not?