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- Poem to Take Back the Night
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Poem to Take Back the Night
What about moonlight What about watching for the moon above the tops of trees and standing still enough to hear the raucous crickets chittering invisible among the soon lit stones trick pinpoints of positions even poise sustained in solitary loss What about moonlight What about moonlight What about watching for the moon through the windows low enough to let the screams and curses of the street the gunshots and the drunken driver screeching tires and the boom box big beat and the tinkle bell ice cream truck inside What about moonlight What about moonlight What about watching for the moon behind the locked doors and bolted shut bedrooms and the blind side of venetian blinds and cowering under the kitchen table and struggling from the car and wrestling head down when the surprise when the stranger when the surprise when the coach when the surprise when the priest when the surprise when the doctor when the surprise when the family when the surprise when the lover when the surprise when the friend when the surprise lacerates your throat constricted into no no more sound who will whisper what about moonlight what about moonlight What about watching for the moon so far from where you tremble where you bleed where you sob out loud for help or mercy for a thunderbolt of shame and retribution where you plead with God and devils with the creatures in-between to push the power key and set you free from filth and blasphemy from everything you never wanted to feel or see to set you free so you could brush your teeth and comb your hair and maybe throw on a jacket or maybe not you running curious and so excited and running and running into the night asking only asking What about the moonlight What about the moonlight from Last Poems (1997-2001) in Directed by Desire. The Collected Poems of June Jordan. Copyright 2005 by the June M. Jordan Literary Estate Trust |