By Brookes Washington
Honorable Mention for the David Middleton Poetry Award
Spent cane to meet a new world, but I ain’t got there yet
So questions rolled off the tongue like dew on morning grass untouched by weary footprints and lost only a simple soul could know
Unkempt, Delaying the Inevitable
Deceived and Convinced closed doors, stained with victory and grace, ain’t gonna open for a sinner like
Me
Warm hearted kindness and breathless hope, what we call faith, in this crypt of a town where the coffins are homes to mindless skeletons in day old thoughts and hypocritical defeat
Where I’m from, there are no thanks you’s or hello’s, just cold shoulders and stale eyes from soulless shadows thickened by the Oak not blood
Tryin’ to keep the taste of deferred dreams out a caged bird’s position, hoping…praying maybe I too can dream and the world will witness this
Passion tried by selfishness and jealously but guided in the light of the hopelessness for the weakened and beaten on their last
So we ran with that, Do I ran with that
Mama prayed and Daddy spoke, so I wrote…giving life to something I never knew but loved so fearfully
Somewhere between life and conclusion, not sure, just knowing that if I could just push harder, fight longer, breathe shorter. You’re almost there, kid…
Blood tinged dirt paved the backyard escape and when the devil stroked his claw on his love’s face, my tears provided that rain
So we ran with that, So I ran with that
All the white color settled into my veins, while the veins settled into the ways
A lifeless river comforting their inabilities and mistakes, ya know it makes things easier to criticize when yo’ shame not on display
But I, like so many before me
Could never shape those ashes allowing man to know me, so we became the subjects of all their enjoyed misfortune
So I left wishes to men who would not spare a breath for my name and decided
Prayer would lead this way, Faith is no idle thing to be discarded or fooled
Cause’ truly, there’s no time for lost on a battlefield of one against a thousand
Cause’ truly, only deaf ears can hear apologizes and blind eyes can see the colors of hurt’s burdens
Sometimes we fall into a trance of wandering and wondering
Of whether
“The Good Enoughs” and “What Ifs” will weather this storm of unpredictability and destined discrepancies
Afraid to fail cause’ even my worst enemy will show sorrow and pity for my dismayed circumstance
So what do I do? Dear God, what do we do?
Persist in the unwillingness of our own defeat?
What if we shouldn’t find the strength to rise, where humility has been confused into shame that weakens the bones and strengthens the very soul who hates me?
Where no one dare lay their head at night, no Father, where do we go from here?
After blood sweated tears, After nightless mornings and morningless nights, After curses of fire and brokenness…After bruised knees and an aching heart filled plea
Spending long hours among the lost, mourning countless skies, and sorrowful spills over a cup rimmed with the blood of the forgotten sweetened by the innocent
Fear could no longer smother a given salvation purposefully disguised as serpents in a garden of the free and of the brave
It took to undo the screws in this makeshift prison, where the mind becomes senseless in its awakening
There is no time or change to spare, just human beings pushing for something bigger than ourselves
Perhaps a voice that will drown us in the sweetness of moral capacity and heavenly righteousness
So divinely created that even sinners like us can stand and be mystified by this greater glory
I don’t know…but this is what I except from spent cane and sore feet, from an exhausted heart in search of peace
All I’m sayin’ is…it’s time to become
UnSung