Backtrack then forward
Here
staring at a verging
dignified future
without the disfigurement
of a beggar’s shame,
licking-boot gratitude,
and the lies you expect me
to live up to, get in line with
like the gummy-bear being you
think I am – a misdeed,
an aberration, desperate for charity,
and the smiles, pat-on-the heads
from the world’s elected ones
of shocking good fortune.
Things I know in the crevice of
my cease-fire, when I let my anger dissipate
and I rise above the long-lasting wound,
take no punishment and offer no prostitution,
then I know the grand gifts I have been given.
I conquer your societal meritorious upbringing,
declaring my own justice
declaring one light, one hell
I will not stride across or
venture into, not for you
and not to appease
the ingrained guilt brewing below,
jolting my integrity, scorning.
Copyright © 2022 by Allison Grayhurst
amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst
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First published in “New Mystics” July 2022
https://www.newmystics.com/lit/AllisonGrayhurst.html
New Mystics July 2022 AllisonGrayhurst-9Poems
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You can listen to the poem by clicking below: