By: Alex Wright
Pity to you,
Sad thieves of sympathy
Praising inanimate objects
As the innocent are gunned down in the streets
There’s some break in evolution
Self-righteous raids wreck resolution
So now we call for revolution
To end these broken systems
That keep people from truly being free
We demand peace
Why is that so complicated?
Piece together the puzzle
Before we’re forced to face what’s fated
When evil holds the throne
Setting fire to mobile homes
Memories
The thoughts I count
When I can’t sleep
Secrets
I swore I’d never be able to keep
Worn so proudly
Suck sparkling defeats
Across my chest
the universe
or multiverse
Whatever dimension still believes in love
In hope
That a life is more than a sentence
A poet more than a poem
Instead forces fight to incinerate
Unaware of tactics to de-escalate
A mad-man spitting his rapid hate
At his bawling broken wife
Who knows the law is not on her side
Until bruises highlight her eyes
If they could only see inside
and find
Her burdened spirit rocking side
to side
Repeating through tears,
“It won’t be alright.”
While the cop clicks
stops.
Rewinds.
Fast forwards.
Pops.
Like a broken cassette
Re-reciting its prompts
Office hours,
Senior threats,
Secret kinks,
Tenured regrets,
His favorite brand of cigarettes.
“But I’ll always take what I can get,
whenever I start to crave.
Ma’am, you’d be wise
If you’d only realize
To sit back and do the same.”
It turns out common law is a loosey
Requested without any change
From tied hands
To knotted tongues
Patient Mouths
Waiting lungs
Like preparing to climb a ladder
That hasn’t any rungs
So I’ll stare from the bottom
Imagining the top.
ALEX WRIGHT CONTAINS MULTITUDES 