Raven Moore's Blog, page 12
October 20, 2014
Tonight
I thought I wasn’t going to make it
tonight
they were waiting for me
watching
calling
smiling
almost happy to see
me
in agony
I put up a fight
but they just kept on
rising
tripping me
never letting me
go
the way I wanted to go
I despised it
but then
I liked it
because I
knew
once I got to the top
it would be all downhill
from there
I thought I wasn’t going to make it
tonight
but I never stopped running
no matter
how many hills
I came across
and the men
they were
actually
cheering me
on
telling me
‘push on up
that
hill girl’
no matter
how
long they
were
no matter
how long I
had to fight
giving up
just
ain’t
right
October 18, 2014
Neophilia
hello-less passerbys
cars who run you
over
because they’re
late
in all manner of
the word
office spaces
with no
space
pay checks
that only
pay
my
bills
watches that tell you
the time
like
you don’t know
what time
it is
like you don’t know what time it is
like you don’t know
you should have said hello
and
looked both ways before you
crossed
My street
I’m not a piece of skin
that happens to have
a brain in it
or a brain that
happens
to move my legs
and sometimes
my lips budge
to talk
to
people who don’t know
how to
say
something
say something
anything
is
better
than
this
October 16, 2014
Money or People?
I would not trade places
with money
gets passed around
to everyone who
can get
their hands
on it
gets used
for absolutely
positively
and negatively
anything
gets tucked in unforeseen
places
and folded, yanked, crumpled
at any whim
The illusion that
money is getting
you what you want
is making you believe
in something that
is
meaningless
money does not
get you
what you
want
people do
October 15, 2014
Spell Progress
That sole
of your shoe
That Refrigerator
with your food
And when you used to sharpen
your pencil
that pencil sharpener
let you
get the
job
done
so that you could
sit down and write a
letter with
that fountain pen
go to
that mailbox too
It might have been
dark
out
so you picked up that
lantern
and some
years later
you turned on
that lovely long-lasting
bulb
and I love
taking
that elevator
downstairs
so I can go
and cross the street
by the grace of
that traffic light
those gas masks
would have been good
in Ferguson
that blood bank too
your cataracts gone with that beam
of light
those things
those people
that intelligence
that fearlessness
Didn’t you know
that African-American
who did that
and the one that started that
and invented that
enabled that?
I am quality.
I am
always reinventing myself
I am new
I am now
I am good
I spell progress
October 14, 2014
Empty Chair
Swirling around you
Never bound to you
but binding you
Papers climb
screens bulge
their
square eyes
at you
they’re bright
and blinding
and you’re still
not getting it
art is not art
on display
thinking you know
who’s gay
or
a color
or
a hijab
being in high heels
that dig holes
in the back
of your feet
art exists for the sake of
art
expression
that it would not
die without
you
but live much longer
than you
because it’s expressed
get up
and do
something
real
Be an empty chair
know that
you’re
never
coming
back
to this
unless you’re ready
to die
October 13, 2014
Little Girl Dreams
Little girl dreams
of big people
things
with her little
pink cart
and her
purse on the
side
she likes to
put her
feet
in big people’s shoes
and wonders
how to talk
more
talk better
hold her own
cup
bring her
food
to her own
mouth
little girl dreams
of big people things
and wonders
why
no one
is dreaming
with her
October 9, 2014
People Do
Life doesn’t knock
you down
people do
help me get
across the street
share your box of cookies
take a walk with a stranger
going your way
write a letter
for the post
instead
of
posting it
on Facebook
forget my color
not my name
life
doesn’t knock you down
people do
smile at a stranger
you appreciate
no clutter
no cloud
only proud
let someone
know when
you think
they’re beautiful
being here
is more
than a miracle
it’s a force
of millions
down to one
to none
and then
suddenly we start counting again
when we’re born
life is there
whenever
however
people can follow
or not
it’s energy
it’s good
life protects you when
it should
life doesn’t knock you down
people do
October 8, 2014
Good Friends
If MLK had lived
just a little
bit longer
Malcolm X
had not been
shot
JFK
had not been
murdered
Medgar Evers
had gotten farther
than his
driveway
Patrice Lumumba
could have made those
4 Belgian
officers disappear
and his brethren
stop roping his arms
tight behind his
back
Thomas Blanton
had been
convicted of murdering
those 4
little
alabama
girls
in 1963
instead of 2001
Ghandi could have lived
long enough
If I could do something
more than sit around
and watch the
same thing
happen
over and over
again
we’d be good friends
October 7, 2014
Wherever Lloyd Gaines Be
the laws that
held us back
created us
is
what
I thought
and then
I released
myself
for a moment
into a dimensionless field
and felt
the rays on
my back
the field overgrown
the wetness
slipping through
my toes
and emboldened me
to run
faster and farther away
to a place
that held me tighter than
this
this ugliness
this disgustingness
that field of nothingness
those words of
forgetfulness
remembering nothing of
the family kind
familiar foods
and laughs
hysterical things
wondrous
in the moment
helping this
destroying this
mean things
said and unsaid
quick to banish
life itself
the laws that held
us
back created us
and then I thought again
in another time
paths
would cross
more interestingly
more daringly
as if hung out to dry
we would
just try
a little something
different
and
remember then
the forgotten things that
gave us
life
to begin
with
that
would be
just be
anything
but really
nothing more
than
love
October 6, 2014
The Ugh Poem
I wanna be
different
Write something
different
Do something
different
Say something
different
Wear something
different
Sing
well
for a change
Run fast
Jump high
Speak German
Make a wish
it come true
immediately
…ugh
I wanna laugh
since I haven’t
in a while
remember to smile
count my blessings
and then I realize
everything
is
just
fine
most of the time
