To Audre Lorde

[Bromion6]

Centuries of struggle and perseverance
And the multitudinous specters of history
Result in no indictments…
And my life goes on.
Can I reckon with the difference
Between poetry and rhetoric?

Will my judgment drown in the
Cesspool of rage and cynicism?
Dare I venture to guess at the
Crimes against humanity submerged
In that puss-white abyss?

I cower at the blinding indifference of
Democracy’s favorite children,
and recognize
The pallid, cannibalistic
Complicity of my own banquet
On the bone-white desert, and
In the company of men with guns
And rhetoric.

Streams of images play across the sunlit sky;
Images of blackness deformed and reified
By the frenzy of crawl-lines and sound bites,
And I can’t help but wonder at the
alabaster privilege
That lets me digest these images.

Can I manage such a reckoning?

The difference between poetry and rhetoric
Might be reckoned as the difference between
Audre Lorde and Jesse Helms,
Where the former
Couples with and affirms the differences
That electrify, enrich, and reanimate,
While the latter
Shrinks from a darkness it can’t capture
With the figures of an incestuous
Purity wrested
From the shrieking black bodies
Entombed in the basements
Of national pride.

Perhaps the difference between poetry and rhetoric
Is the difference between
A body and an Icon,
Where the former
Expresses the seething, ingenious radiance
Of its sensual connectivity,
While the latter
Builds iron walls around the illusory contours
Of its remote and fetishized signifiers.

Is the difference between poetry and rhetoric
The difference between
People and “The People?”
Where the former
Meet and intermingle
In the secret, profound surrenderings
Of public and private spaces;
The interstices within and beyond
The bloodless Empire of
The latter,
Which drones a monologue
That returns enervated echoes of its
Shrill and solitary anthem?

Is a reckoning of this sort possible
For me?

Am I capable of congregating with the
“sister outsiders” and “problem people?”
Or am I doomed to counterfeit poetry
Using the “master’s tools” of rhetoric;
Tools which I was learning to use
Before I knew how to speak?
Can I find a power that is not
Shaped by fear?

Am I ready to kill myself
Instead of your children?

[dwells]

A strong piece, bravely spoken Bro, and the majority rule will always be perceived as victimizing the minority. This is nothing new in world history, and is based in tribalism and the innate belief that we are something better.
Only time and dedication to a civil society can ameliorate the clash of cultures through assimilation. The puss white abyss will always beckon those who seek to divide us. Cheers! - Dan

[Farkas]

Hi

Unfortunately reason has left the building. When the jackboots are on your neck there are only two choices. Either submit or fight for the life that struggles to continue within you. The choice must be only for the one who chooses.

Farkas

[Chelle]

Honestly my first reaction was to sit back and say wow. You are a poet. This was a condemnation of the current status quo. It is for sometimes silly reasons we send men into harm's way. An excellent example of how we can use poetry to start discussions.