by Lillian Baker Kennedy
In my front yard grows a lone thistle
spared the mower in remembrance
of Irish souls, deep in desperation,
bent, clutching their middles,
having partaken of the thistle’s
benevolence, too poor for purchase
in Trevelyan’s market of dreamt competition,
collapsing by the side of the road.
Trevelyan, who knew it all, refused to feed them
for feeding them would make them less free.
Will these streets of South Portland,
without sidewalks, one day run
to ruin? Will our Senate be so certain
about the nature of liberties? Will our captains
of industry, our bankers abandon
the ones who saved them, who
bailed them out, who
ate their losses?
Lillian Baker Kennedy, instructor in the core curriculum at USM L-A, teaches “Thinking About the Arts; Thinking Through the Arts.” A volunteer poet curator for the Atrium Gallery’s past poetry/art exhibits, Kennedy has co-edited a number of poetry anthologies, and her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart, anthologized, exhibited and published in numerous small presses. An interview, critical essay on poetics and numerous poems are available online. Kennedy practices family law in Southern Maine and lives in an old cape near the sea.
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