Back To The Beginning by Stephen Jarrell Williams

We're in a slow tumble,
sleepy-eyed...

The whole country a quack,
paying now and forever.

They say it's our fault.
Maybe it is...

Thinking of the kids...
We deserve to be stepped on.

But I believe
we can shake ourselves out of this.

Changing those at the top
to the bottom.

Going back to the beginning,
common sense and hard work...

A friend to earth and sky and self.

 

Published in Word Catalyst Magazine- February 2010

FACE OF IRAQ by Stephen Jarrell Williams

Somewhere out in the dark
spiked sand-traps waiting

fingers made of frayed metal
ready to grab under the ground
face of Iraq
chewing

wanting to tear our flesh and snap bones

our truckloads rumbling into a town of huts
impossible to glide over their bulging veins

bomb blast
jerks the underworld
into our rubber tires

careening off the dirt road
we check our boots and balls

filing out into the hollow blackness
we take position
pointing weapons at whatever moves

but nothing moves in the now stillness
not even the breath of their buried mouths

we are civilized and chew gum
into the morning glare
our sunglasses peering across the gap of worlds

we spit and create storms
choking them with our dust.



Published in Deuce Coupe- November 2009