Matthew

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Spence
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Matthew

Post by Spence » August 1st, 2016, 5:11 am

I was eight
when they tied you
to the fence and let
the buzzards hurt
the parts of you
they couldn't.

(that barbed wire
is a silence all
of us hold between
our aching teeth.
it is all
that holds us up.)


when I tell you
i am lost
it is not to the grimy corners
of an unswept closet
thick and choking
on old bathrobes and books.

it's a dry field in Autumn
and the look
of a scarecrow
bleeding out, waiting
for someone to
bicycle past
and stop

it
-- Happens again
in a thousand ways:
the snap of straw
blonde hair rustled up
by tacky iron pulses.

Pistol-whipped,
the dirt of how
they will always
look at us, sideways
and swollen

your name is a station
map of the ways
I stay scar(r)ed
from handlebars
as when I wheeled around
my hometown,

and learned
to navigate the heart
of a hundred
close-doored houses
without training wheels.

waited for another decade
when your face would be my own.


I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.

scribble
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Re: Matthew

Post by scribble » August 2nd, 2016, 5:30 pm

This is haunting. So sad and so well written. I'm feeling raw and a little bit scarred myself. Wow!


"Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night."

Sarah Williams

JASON
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Re: Matthew

Post by JASON » August 18th, 2016, 2:06 pm

What I get out of this is social rejection...
someone, something (a relationship maybe), that didn't (doesn't ) conform to the norm??
interesting work!!



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candlewitch
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Re: Matthew

Post by candlewitch » August 21st, 2016, 9:56 am

hello,

...what they said, and this was wonderful... my favorite lines:

your name is a station
map of the ways
I stay scar(r)ed
from handlebars
as when I wheeled around
my hometown,

always, Cat


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Chelle
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Re: Matthew

Post by Chelle » October 16th, 2016, 3:44 pm

I could be wrong but I was thinking about what they did to Matthew Shepherd since the anniversary of the hate crime was recent. May he rest in peace, poor soul.


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Jim
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Re: Matthew

Post by Jim » October 17th, 2016, 3:22 pm

Reading this affected me deeply.
Strong medicine


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