Love one another.John 13:34 It isn’t love – thiscloset-enforced livingwith clothes hangersand dust bunnieswinter coats andold shoes not wornin decades It isn’t love – theseautocratic laws*leaving autonomy andfreedom and well,the normal,on a window sill,like an un-wateredplant, leave itlong enough andit will witherand diethis isn’t love not – the arrest andconviction**when evenwords are second-ratecitizens and ironyContinue reading “Everything Leviticus”
Author Archives: Anne Birkam
Woke
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Maya Angelou Early morning thechickadee comes –darts to the feederpeanut – sunflower seed –he grabs and is gonewhen he comes laterinvariably a blue jayor a squirrelwill be sitting thereking of the castleor even a goldfinchholding forth –away oh chickadeethis food is mine EvenContinue reading “Woke”
Just another day in the neighborhood
I would like to choseanother door –I don’t need a vacationto Bora Boraa new cara mink coatnope don’twant a newbedroom seta night at the operaa day at the museumI just want thedoor wherecars don’t backfirechildren aren’t screaming –diving under desksI want the door wherethe people don’t bleed 2/14/2023
Singers
“A poem cannot stop a bullet. A novel can’t diffuse a bomb. But we are not helpless. We can sing the truth and name the liars.” – Salman Rushdie There was a reed in her voicethis woman who loved meunconditionally. A trilland a pause and praisingthe beauty of a spider’sweb, intricate and fine-the makings ofContinue reading “Singers”
Cormorant
“Zhang Zhan risked everything to report on Covid-19 when it first appeared in Wuhan, China. In February 2020, she decided to travel to Wuhan as a citizen journalist in order to provide on-the-ground information about what was happening there. The former lawyer took to social media, reporting how government officials had detained independent reporters andContinue reading “Cormorant”
History lessons
Obfuscation is necessary herehide those pesky factsin plain sight if need bea truth told slantin a world on firefloods everywhereprevarication all overthe place Mamie Till stoodher ground –she let the imageof her son’s facetell the storyand what a storyit wasmust have beenif they are stillintent on lyingabout itobfuscation –that is what it is allabout 2023
What remains
Achilles heelfrom some previous centurySisyphus and a rockwith the lesson of prideCassandra’s warningunheeded as everAriadne’s threador how to escapeMedea and her childrenwhere vengeance is brutalJudith with a head is just awarrior woman unleashedPortia in her eloquenceIsabel in her silenceQuixote with a windmillGiverny’s gardens withirises of upturned headsMoonlight Sonatahaunting the foreverDavid allcurves and perfectionTikalThe Great SphinxhowContinue reading “What remains”
Profiles no courage
Your kitchen smells ofwisp and flamefanning a lieof borders todivide It is not the hearthat my grandmother’sfarmwith scent of molasseslack of running waterand sparkshe never missed a beatthis woman who couldnot swimrowed a boat to aone-room schoolhouseto teach What magic canyou weave otherthan sorrow forwhat we losein our addiction toprevarication? Oh, so now youstep downContinue reading “Profiles no courage”
Justice Taney presides
The male lionwill stalk the femalekill her youngif they do notbelong to himhe will rape herleave herprimal in allhe doesand he is leftunder the footof extinction fromanother primalspecies Audacious for surethis claim ofcivilizationvirtue when theevidence belies itfor the primal urgeis witnessed inthe DNA passeddown generationto generationsame old same old Some things justdon’t change 5/2024
Dipping
Not a chance here –in the land of themidnight sunI am going to find you –you of the black leggull-like presencebeat of your ownwings liftingm-shapedover and over The lust forfreedom iseverywhereeven an earwigcurled in the lettucewill escape withan imperceptiblebreath Sometimes you justhave to missthat connection – ballto batto make the hitall the sweeterSometimes it isn’taboutContinue reading “Dipping”
Anne's mediocre poetry 