I hear your anguished cry of grief:
such a cry can only come
from the terrible ripping open
of a place inside you
that should have remained closed
for some it is the law
that grief be met with rended garments,
anguish expressed in controlled destruction,
figurative breaking be made literal
when the bodies of your people are rended
when you call
for mourning men and wailing women,
let me not pretend
some token tearing is enough.
no,
let entire garments of my history
and privilege fall away
unusable
and let my own hands
do the rending
poem (c) 2016 D. Ohlandt
please only reprint in entirety and with credit given
#40for40