SHAME

by Pepper Trail

Twitter @rodriguezmonos

A deadening     a twist

            in the mouth     the heart

When personal –

            for an act     a thought

            shame is an ember

                                        a burning a thing to attend to

            extinguish or

                                     fan to flame     the better to see

           our darkness

But this—political— 

                                for my country

            for children in cages

            for father and child

      embracing in the river     dead

            for a monster whose reason not to rape is            

    “not my type”        

               for men     hands on Bibles

                                                     claiming dominion over women’s bodies

            for the highest court endorsing the lowest deceits

            for the cultivation of fear

                                                  the exaltation of hate

            for the endless

                               endless

                                endless

                                                lies    until we are bludgeoned

                                    unconscious

In this     I find no     

                           ember no gleam of light

In this darkness        

                        I howl

                                    but hear no echo

Only silence


Pepper Trail is a poet and naturalist based in Ashland, Oregon. His poetry has appeared in Rattle, Atlanta Review, Spillway, Kyoto Journal, Cascadia Review, and other publications, and has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net awards. His collection Cascade-Siskiyou was a finalist for the 2016 Oregon Book Award in Poetry.