How long will you suppress our thoughts
by holding back generations 
from being open and free?
How long will you burn crosses,
rally to arms or  segregate races
in the name of supremacy ?
 
Scream
if I dare
to defy you,
as in my youth, I will stand and fight
toss the flag to the ground or burn a bra,
radical ideas . . . maybe,
but such statements defined a generation
and made history,
then, as now,
ideas and dreams must be realized
to foster future ambitions.

Scream
if I dare
to keep my mind open,
for I will always defend the right
to be free, to love, to integrate
to experience and demonstrate
an artistic ability or express
myself as an individual -
for I am an American,
born of freedom, but suppressed by those
who would have me believe I should
live in a bubble, removed from
harm, vulgarity, and sexuality;
I should be of one race, one mind, one religion,
preserved as if I were a virgin statue
unfeeling and cold,
as hateful as those who slam their fists upon
the righteous pulpit
swearing to do God’s deed,
yet bellow and sneer
and stick their noses high in the air,
turning their heads away
from those who dare to be different.

How long will such hypocrisy persevere?
Down through the decades
I imagine,
for I have seen them rule,
stinking of violence
causing undue harm;
such pristine images they hold of themselves,
so big, so powerfu . . .
so wrong.
I have always rebelled against
the sins of stupidity,
for it screams of ignorance,
and I will always be intolerant
to the mindset of paranoia,
for it only enslaves the souls of the free.

 

 

Scream Image by
Debbie Angelosanto
This poem can be found
in our anthology, Heels & Souls

 

Darkness descends quickly
like a guillotine
executing the light,
I surrender to the waiting gloom
welcoming the unexpected
as my mind frees itself
from the day's events.

Here, in the escape zone
thoughts run wild
like gathering storm clouds
about to wreak havoc.

Strange images abound
faceless and distorted,
scenes throw themselves together
senselessly, 
threaded only by imagination.

Suddenly
something dark and disturbing
enters,
I awake in a panic,
heart pounding
I cannot breathe
as a rush of outside noises
fill my senses,
distant traffic and chirping birds
seep into my sleepy mind;
foreign sounds,
they are so surreal.

Reality seems so strange.

 

The house where I grew up
stands in the shadows of the old elm,
the only tree left,
the one dad and I planted.
The yard is now barren,
stripped of its former glory
where tall trees, shrubs, and flowers
once wound their way around the house
like an English garden.
A tall white arbor
framed the front walkway
welcoming visitors
with the fragrant scent of roses
bursting with mid – summer's color.

My favorite spot 
was the back screened in porch
which lent itself to hours of play
and was filled with laughter
on lazy summer nights
when friends and family gathered
for idle chat and late suppers;
now it sits in silent despair
with sagging wood and rotting floorboards,
the paint fading like lost memories,
scarcely a hint of its former beauty;
a ghost of a different era.

The house where I grew up
stands on the corner
among other lost jewels;
it is full of life with another family
yet it is empty of pride and care.
The neighborhood is old and decaying,
dying.
It is no more,
save in distant memories
rich with the sounds and smells of summer. 

Suffocation
the fear of being swallowed
up by something you cannot see,
an omnipresent state
that is at once terrifying and rewarding.
The promise of things to come
pulses through every fiber of your being,
beckoning, demanding . . .
The pain
the insanity of life
all its twists and turns
peaks and yearns,
rocketing to the top;
ecstatic,
but only in the moment
before spiraling down,
down, down,
sinking
into the well of no return.

Darkness,
coldness
and the stillness of what lies beyond
consume and comfort you
in this moment of absolute clarity,
though it is a visceral journey
you have based these final
fatal footsteps on.
Go now
into the depths of your delusion
where peace awaits you
and the fragments of your heart
will be left for others to decipher.