They said
You were absent
from the podium,
as I am now absent
from my own life,
from Chicago, its teeming shores,
endless issues, gracious folks,
& ill-begotten gains;
as the lady with alzheimers
is absent from the present,
the here & now,
& walks only the hallowed halls of memory.
"You don't talk when
there is no one to listen," she says.
You don't speak at the podium
When your words would be swatted away
by hands that crushed small companies to bits.
Attack, attack, attack, that hands that pull triggers,
rat-a-tat-tat.
Great change comes at great cost.
"Listen up, my brothers & sisters,
My beloved betrhren.
The man who stands quiet at the podium
May not be absent at all.
He may be present & alert to the moment
in which he wrenches the podium from its base,
shatters the frozen smirks,
invites all on stage to boogie
black white muslim jew rabbi priest
& declare that race religion wealth
are No Longer the defining factors
of mankind or of the USA.
By March Bracken
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