by Howie Good
Everywhere I go, it’s the same thing,
pockets filling up with dirt, with tears,
with small, gray feathers of smoke,
crowds in the background murmuring
a familiar prayer, a powerful name,
impatient for the century to at last begin,
or at least for this dry season to end,
and as I stare out across the page,
I wish I could remember a time
when shadows were merely shadows
and our skin was blue and gold
like the gorgeous raiment of sacred kings.
Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of six poetry chapbooks, including most recently Tomorrowland (2008) from Achilles Chapbooks. He has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize and twice for the Best of the Net anthology.
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