by Lucille Gang Shulklapper
For Chen Guangcheng
I am the Jew who wears the yellow star
in the hate-ghettoes of America
in the political regimes that kill
torture and maim men
in the Louisiana marshes
in the dead and dying song birds
the broken-winged birds
of Langston Hughes.
I am the old woman
whose feet sank in golden sand
who remembers the living ocean
who streamed its waves
who watched its minnows wriggle
who tasted its salt
who waded in its kisses
to America’s shores.
I am the one afraid of those
in the thirst of power
bottled in iron-clad leaks
covering bodies with rigged fate
their tongues of sludge swallowing
me with the bitter taste of history
dug from mass graves.
Lucille Gang Shulklapper's work appears in many journals and anthologies, including The New Verse News and four poetry chapbooks, the most recent titled In the Tunnel. Her first picture book, Stuck in Bed, Fred, has been accepted for publication.
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